With Lee in Virginia | Page 9

no longer a fear of his old enemy the whip
as much as the general course of kindness and good treatment that had
effected the change in his behavior.
It was just when Vincent had established a good under standing
between himself and Wildfire that he had the altercation with the
overseer, whom he found about to flog the young negro Dan. Pearson
had sent the lad half an hour before on a message to some slaves at
work at the other end of the estate, and had found him sitting on the
ground watching a tree in which he had discovered a possum. That Dan

deserved punishment was undoubted. He had at present no regular
employment upon the estate. Jake, his father, was head of the stables,
and Dan had made himself useful in odd jobs about the horses, and
expected to become one of the regular stable hands. The overseer was
of opinion that there were already more negroes in the stable than could
find employment, and had urged upon Mrs. Wingfield that one of the
hands there and the boy Dan should be sent out to the fields. She,
however, refused.
"I know you are quite right, Jonas, in what you say. But there were
always four hands in the stable in my father's time, and there always
have been up to now; and though I know they have an easy time of it, I
certainly should not like to send any of them out to the fields. As to
Dan, we will think about it. When his father was about his age he used
to lead my pony when I first took to riding, and when there is a vacancy
Dan must come into the stable. I could not think of sending him out as
a field hand, in the first place for his father's sake, but still more for that
of Vincent. Dan used to be told off to see that he did not get into
mischief when he was a little boy, and he has run messages and been
his special boy since he came back. Vincent wanted to have him as his
regular house servant; but it would have broken old Sam's heart if, after
being my father's boy and my husband's, another had taken his place as
Vincent's."
And so Dan had remained in the stable, but regarding Vincent as his
special master, carrying notes for him to his friends, or doing any odd
jobs he might require, and spending no small portion of his time in
sleep. Thus he was an object of special dislike to the overseer; in the
first place because he had not succeeded in having his way with regard
to him, and in the second because he was a useless hand, and the
overseer loved to get as much work as possible out of every one on the
estate. The message had been a somewhat important one, as he wanted
the slaves for some work that was urgently required; and he lost his
temper, or he would not have done an act which would certainly bring
him into collision with Vincent.
He was well aware that the lad did not really like him, and that his

efforts to gain his good-will had failed, and he had foreseen that sooner
or later there would be a struggle for power between them. However,
he relied upon his influence with Mrs. Wingfield, and upon the fact that
she was the life-owner of the Orangery, and believed that he would be
able to maintain his position even when Vincent came of age. Vincent
on his side objected altogether to the overseer's treatment of the hands,
of which he heard a good deal from Dan, and had already remonstrated
with his mother on the subject. He, however, gained nothing by this.
Mrs. Wingfield had replied that he was too young to interfere in such
matters, that his English ideas would not do in Virginia, and that
naturally the slaves were set against the overseer; and that now Pearson
had no longer a master to support him, he was obliged to be more
severe than before to enforce obedience. At the same time it vexed her
at heart that there should be any severity on the Orangery estate, where
the best relations had always prevailed between the masters and slaves,
and she had herself spoken to Jonas on the subject.
He had given her the same answer that she had given her son: "The
slaves will work for a master, Mrs. Wingfield, in a way they will not
for a stranger. They set themselves against me, and if I were not severe
with them I should get no work at all out of them. Of course, if you
wish it, they can do as they