praise for our home-made cakes, honey, and
hominy, and over the coffee we had a good chat
until it was time for Mr. Lanier to return to West
Point, from where he had driven Charley over.

The two of us then had a long walk through my
cotton plantation and peach orchards. He seemed
greatly surprised at the large tract of land under
cultivation, and the way in which I controlled
the negroes. Everything in the South was strange
to him, and the negroes and the rough set of
white people with whom he came in contact puzzled
him a great deal at first. He did not seem to like
the negroes, and thought that the life generally
was unfit for me; but I told him that I liked it,
as it gave me a healthy and paying occupation,
though he, of course, had got his own beautiful
Avondale and plenty to do on the estate.

I did my best to make him comfortable, and
gave him a nice room next to my own, with a com-
munication door between, as I knew of old that
he was subject to nervous attacks and used to
walk in his sleep. He told me that he disliked
the Southern cooking, because it was so greasy,
and he seemed to be glad when I told him that I
also disliked greasy food. Still, he appeared very
soon to accommodate himself to the life.

He spent three weeks with me. We used to do
a lot of partridge-shooting, and visited all the mills
and cotton factories in the neighbourhood, in
which he took a great deal of interest. One day

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