Leon had been inspired by Sarah’s visit to work on the plantation more seriously than he ever had before. He was knowledgeable about livestock from being so much with Floyd and Ezra as they worked, and now his frequent presence at the stables and stalls and pens gave weight and authority to the opinions he voiced. The first time he automatically, without planning to do so, contradicted an opinion of Roscoe’s and gave a contrary order about the use of a team of mules, Plumboy’s eyes opened wide, and he looked from one to the other until Roscoe struck him on the shoulder with a little tasseled whip he had recently taken to carrying, more as a plaything for his idle hands than an object to use. “Do it, man!” he ordered and strode away, leaving Leon to finish the matter his own way.

When he was not offering his arm and company to Sarah, who found much to do and now needed no guide, Leon went wherever the largest force was employed, walked or rode among them, or stood watching, much as his father before him had, enjoying the sight of men and women working. Now and then he abandoned his role of spectator and joined the work, borrowing a hoe or an ax or a knife or a bucket or a spade, as the work demanded. He was quick and adept and would for short, concentrated spells work harder and with more skill than anyone about him, not trying to set an example, but doing it for the sheer pleasure and interest of doing it. He had the aristocrat’s ease with dirt and the use of his hands, whereas Roscoe was seldom seen to use his hands, except to guide the reins of his mule. He abhorred direct hand-dirt contact, as a man who had been forced by early circumstance to work at any kind of labor he could get.

Roscoe was seldom present when Leon joined the work force. He left on-the-spot supervision largely to his lieutenants, men chosen because they were afraid of him and who owed him some debt or personal allegiance, and who would therefore get the most out of the workers that could be got.

The workers, men and women alike, were pleased with Leon’s joining them if he did not stay too long. It made a welcome break and novelty in a boring day. But a long stay merely underlined the drudgery of what they had to do. Roscoe’s odd, surprise visits accomplished more in getting work done than Leon’s spur of the moment visits that sometimes were overextended both in the time he spent and the unwanted intimacy he enforced by joining the actual work. A man found it easier to keep his own hoe than to lend it and take it back. The different angle of another’s swing could dull its cutting edge.