Summary

The unnamed narrator begins by describing how following Emancipation, the sugar plantation buildings in Jamaica slowly turned into vine-covered ruins. Two old heiresses in one of these mansions, the Miss Parkers, didn’t know how to care for themselves without the women who had been their slaves. They starved to death in their beds. Nearby was the estate of Ferndale, where a large English family, the Bas-Thorntons, lived. The father went to work each day and the children spent their time running around the decay and playing with their beloved half-wild cat Tabby. Fat, red-headed John was the oldest, followed by skinny Emily, and the three “Liddlies” (10) were Rachel, Edward, and toddler Laura. One of their favorite things was playing in the bathing-pool. A black man had once drowned there, and the emancipated slaves would no longer visit it for fear of his “duppy...