One of them, the head bookkeeper, as he was called, appeared literally
roasted by the intensity of the sun's rays.
"How is Baldy Steer?" said the overseer to this person.
"Better to--day, sir--I drenched him with train--oil and sulphur."
"The devil you did," thought I--"alas! for Baldy." "And Mary, and
Caroline, and the rest of that lot?" "Are sent to Perkin's Red Rover, sir;
but I believe some of them are in calf already by Bullfinch--and I have
cut Peter for the lampas." The knife and fork dropped from my hands.
"What can all this mean? is this their boasted kindness to their slaves?
One of a family drenched with train--oil and brimstone, another cut for
some horrible complaint never heard of before, called lampas, and the
females sent to the Red Rover, some being in calf already!" But I soon
perceived that the baked man was the cowboy or shepherd of the estate,
making his report of the casualties amongst his bullocks, mules, and
heifers.
"Juliet Ridge will not yield, sir," quoth another.
"Who is this next? a stubborn concern she must be."
"The liquor is very poor." Here he helped himself to rum and water, the
rum coming up about an inch in the glass, regular half and half, fit to
float a marlinspike.
"It is more than yours is," thought I; and I again stared in wonderment,
until I perceived he spoke of the juice of a cane patch.
At this time a tall, lathy gentleman came in, wearing a most original cut
coatee.
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