'Certainly not,' retorted Joseph. 'You know very well that I dislike traveling by water. This journey is hard because we are traveling like peasants. I am not accustomed to waiting on myself. It's undignified. I'm extremely uncomfortable.'

And so am I, she thought. But already she had become wise enough not to point out that their lack of private servants was due entirely to his own decision. On this trip to the North he had brought none of his slaves, having found them a nuisance on the previous visit, nor had he allowed her to take any of the Burr servants, saying with truth that more than a plenty awaited them on the plantations. In consequence they shifted for themselves and were a travel-stained, disheveled couple on the morning of March twenty-third, when they finally reached Yawhannah, and left the Lumber ton-Georgetown Mail.

The Alston chaise awaited them, on its box a glistening black coachman resplendent in the family livery—red and green stripes with brass buttons and a tall, shiny black hat.

'This is your new mistress, Pompey,' said Joseph, giving a groan of relief as he stretched his legs in the chaise.

Pompey grinned and murmured something unintelligible to Theo, who smiled helplessly, and, turning to Joseph, laughed, 'I can't understand a word he says. It might be Chinese for all of me.'

Joseph was not amused. 'He bade you welcome and wished you good luck. You must learn the Gullah dialect at once. You will be mistress of more than two hundred niggers and will have many duties amongst them.'

'Shall I?' She was startled. She had had little to do with the servants at home. Peggy and Alexis managed the household and neither expected nor welcomed supervision. Peggy, highly intelligent even for a mulatto, wrote nearly as good a hand as Theo did herself and competently dealt with all emergencies.

How little I know of this life I am going to lead! she thought, and barely suppressed the thought which followed: How little I wish to know of it! She gave herself an inward shake. 'No fears, no nerves, no self-indulgence'. That was one of Aaron's favorite maxims.

'What duties shall I have?' she asked, trying to sound enthusiastic. 'I thought an overseer looked after all the negroes.'

'The overseer is responsible for the field hands and the artisans, not the house servants. Besides, there are many other things——' He sighed. He was tired, and as every mile brought them nearer home, he began to feel misgivings which had never occurred to him up North.