AN ORDER DISOBEYED.

  AS with all wealthy planters, the most perplexing care to Mildmay, was the management of the overseer. To this individual, the proprietor has to delegate immense authority, and yet the very qualities essential for an overseer, almost necessarily suppose, that he will not, and cannot be a refined and responsible man. Mildmay had his share of difficulties after Fenwick left him, but he at length employed a "Mr. Toadvine," who could command readily in the neighborhood a liberal salary, and was well recommended. Mildmay, upon concluding his agreement with Toadvine, gave him some general instructions, proscribing on his place the use of a certain kind of whip, and incidentally mentioning, that if Jack, one of the "field hands," should at any time need correction, he desired that it would not be administered without his, Mildmay's, knowledge.

  Some months after Toadvine was installed in his office, the unexpected announcement, by Mr. Mildmay, that business would call him away from home for two or three days, caused a feeling of universal gratulation in the mind of the

  "I reckon that'll do," at last muttered the aggrieved man, "that'll do,—I'll teach Mr. Mildmay that niggers is niggers, and that he can't come back here from the free States with his damn'd infernal abolition notions, and interfere in my business. If any of his hands 'aint got thar share of whipping 'fore night it'll be no fault of mine."

  Just at that moment, the front gate of the quarter inclosure opened, and in rode "Col. Price," the overseer of the "Moreton estate." Toadvine saluted his friend, asked him to dismount, and they both entered the house.

  "I came over," said Price, "to ask you to let me have the timber wheels; I think of going into the swamp this

  "It's a wonder," snarled out Toadvine, "that Mr. Mildmay did any thing of the kind. He's been in Connecticut so infarnally long, that I didn't believe he would do a favor."

  "Why, what's turned your hair the wrong way this morning?" inquired Col. Price, with considerable interest.

  "Why, jist this," said Toadvine, "you see I've been overseer here too long to be interfered with by any man, and I won't stand it. Mister Mildmay can't teach me my business, and he shan't tell me I whip too much or too little. It's only yesterday he made me let Monday up, and I had'nt cut his hide nary place!"

  "There is one thing that'll never do," said Col. Price; "one thing 'll never do, and that is, to let employers interfar too much in our business. My notion is, 'let me be head or tail, or no think.'"

  "Them's the way I think," half soliloquized Toadvine, drawing his huge whiplash through his fingers; "them's the way I think, and unless we do something to let these upstarts know who's who, 'taint unlikely we may get down to be thought as little of as a schoolmaster or a preacher."

  "Not as bad as that!" said Col. Price, in a tone of voice that showed that he never thought that such a respectable office as overseer could possibly be degraded by connection with such professions; "no, no, not so bad as that," and rousing himself up, he drove his fist into the table, and looking around in a great excitement, he said,

  Toadvine, who had cruelty enough in his composition to make two Col. Prices, lacked that military gentleman's courage in the expression of his sentiments; so he deeply regretted that he had made even the improbable comparison that had given his friend offence, and getting up from his seat he went to a rude sideboard, and unlocking it, he took out a decanter of raw whiskey, and setting a broken tumbler and a teacup upon the table, he suggested to Col. Price the propriety of taking something to help out his breakfast."

  "That's very good liquor," said Price, smacking his lips, "whar did you come across it?"

  "Well, don't you know it, easy," suggested Toadvine, putting the decanter up to Price's nose, "don't you know the smell?"

  "Upon my word," said Price, drawing in his breath, as if inhaling the perfume of a moss rose, "upon my word, old Gen. Blatherskite's 'electioneering tour,' as the central committee called it; how did you have so much? thought it all went at the 'Clay gut precinct.'"

  "Why, you see," said Toadvine, "I sent word to the General, that if he expected to get the vote of this neighborhood, he had better send up a bar'l of something to drink, and he sent word he'd do it; he said that 'South was in danger,' and he'd do any thing but bribe, to get to get to Congress. I sent after the bar'l the very morning of the day it was wanted, by lazy Jim, and would you believe it, the

  "And so," said Price, helping himself to another glass, "you had the whole left on your hands?"

  "Nuthen else," chuckled Toadvine, and, as if unable to restrain himself longer, and either from the effect of the liquor, or the remembrance of the trick he played upon a candidate for Congress, he kicked his heels in the air and laughed until the tears came in his eyes.

  "But didn't the General smell a rat?" inquired Price, in a deprecating voice, "didn't he find out how you fixed it?"

  "Not a bit of it," said Toadvine, "for I saw the General coming down the road the next day, so I staked down lazy Jim by the side of the fence, and commenced on him just as the General rode up. The nigger hollered 'Oh, lord, Massa Toadvine, have mercy!' 'Yes,' said I, not noticing the General, 'I'll have mercy, you infernal scoundrel, for delaying on the road yesterday with that whiskey. I'll teach you to fool away your time, when you are on Gen. Blatherskite's business.'"

  "'On whose business?' said the General reining up his horse, and looking astonished; 'are you flogging that nigger on my account, Mr. Toadvine?'"

  "'Yes, General,' said I, looking very angry, 'this nigger was sent for the whiskey, to treat your friends at "Clay gut," and he managed to get back after the voting was over.'"

  "'Well, never mind!' said the General, 'just keep it to drink my health with!' and he rode away; but whar was

  At this point in the conversation, a tall likely-looking negro was seen approaching the house, from the field; he carried his hoe jauntily across his shoulder. In coming in the surrounding inclosure, he was obliged to pass through a gate, always placed near the overseer's dwelling.

  "Whar you going?" said Toadvine; and springing into the yard, and whirling his whip over his head, he brought it down on the negro's back, simultaneous with his question, "whar you going, you black devil? did I not tell you to stay in the field?"

  "Master James," said the negro with humility, mixed with astonishment, while still writhing under the pain of the blow; "I cum'd home because Mistress wanted I to clar up de yard, you knows I wouldn't leave de gang, 'cept on permission."

  "I knows nothing of the kind," sneered Toadvine, in the negro's face; "I know nothing except you are a sneaking, skulking scoundrel; but I'll catch you, my man,—I'll catch you! and by the——, if I get a chance at your hide, I'll peel you cleaner than you ever did a possum! now go and clear up the yard;" and Toadvine struck at the boy again; but with surprising agility Jack avoided the blow, and disappeared.

  "There's insurrection for you," snarled out Toadvine, in a perfect fit of rage, at the same time storming up and down the yard; "there's a nigger that his master says I

  Price looked on coolly, apparently uninterested; at any rate he expressed no surprise, but let Toadvine exhaust himself, in giving wordy expressions to his feelings; and then, from a wild flower growing near by, with a well aimed mouthful of tobacco juice, he knocked a bumble-bee on the ground, and spoke as follows:—

  "Toadvine, circumvent that nigger; just teach him you are a warmer friend to him than his master. Don't strike him, as you did just now, in anger, and without a cause,—have a reason, and then work at his hide, like a saw-mill."

  "But I can't get a reason," said Toadvine, groaning under his impotency; "he won't give me half a chance."

  "Well, make a chance," whined out the sapient Colonel. "You know 'fore I come to Moreton's, I overseed for old Captain Berks; well, you see Berks hadn't any but old family niggers, as he called 'em,—and one, that nussed him when he was a boy, he was particularly nice of—that was a nigger, sure; why hog and hominy was too good for him. 'Now,' said old Berks to me, said he, "Colonel Price, that boy I know'd ever since I was a child; he carried me 'bout 'fore I could walk, and saved me from drowning at ten years old. That nigger,' continued Berks, 'cut the fust stick on this yere plantation, and he mustn't be whipped, on no account.'

  "Old Berks hadn't been to Connecticut to school, when he gave that order," continued Price, winking knowingly at Toadvine; "twarn't done for fear, neither, for

  "One night we was weighing cotton, and up walked Big Bill, a thick-lipped scoundrel as there was on the place; he put his basket on the scales, and by the hokey, it went over three hundred. 'Well done!' said old Berks, in ecstasy, 'well done, Big Bill; and now,' said the old man, sort of funny like, 'as you have picked fifty pounds more than usual, you call at the state room, and get a pair of shoes." Big Bill laughed—old Berks laughed— and I stuck my hand into the cotton basket, and pulled out two water-melons, weighing 'bout thirty-nine pounds.

  "At this," continued Price, rubbing his hands in glee, and giving the poor bumble-bee another shower of tobacco juice, "at this, old Berks, who was a 'little tight,' got into a passion; he swore such ungenerous and outrageous conduct, on the part of his niggers, would break his heart, and if I didn't give Big Bill 'forty,' he would dismiss me from the place, and administer the medicine himself.

  "So said I, pretending to be hurt with his severity, said I, 'Captain Berks, them's family niggers.' 'I don't care,' shouted the old man (the brandy, I think, getting the upper hand of him); 'I don't care, family or no family; a fellow that would swindle on one side, and rob my melon patch on the other, shall be flogged. I'd tie up Jeff thar, much as I think of him,' said Berks, 'if he'd do such a thing.' 'You would,' said I, pretending to be astonished. 'Yes, I would,' said old Berks, towering; 'if you ever

  As Price concluded this interesting story, he deliberately walked past Toadvine, who was standing, a perfect monument of mystified surprise, and mounting his horse, appeared as if he was thus unceremoniously going to ride away.

  "And what about Jeff?" finally asked the perplexed and rather dull overseer.

  "Oh nothing," replied Price carelessly, "only the next night, thar was a water melon in Jeff's basket, and every nigger on the place see'd it, and he was given 'forty,' and I think it tuck him six weeks to get out of the hospital."

  Toadvine, as he watched the retreating form of his friend, Colonel Price, seemed suddenly inspired with unusual spirits; he cracked his whip in scientific flourishes, and going into his cabin, he stuck a loaded pistol in his belt, took a drink of whiskey, locked up the decanter, and remarking, "that Colonel Price is smart, and that water-melon trick was beautiful," he mounted his shaggy pony, and was soon lost in the distance, as he rode towards the slave gang, at work in the field.

  As Col. Price reached the main road on his way home, he came up with a small, sandy-faced, light-haired man, mounted on a "creole pony," and followed by five or six fierce-looking hounds; a double-barrelled gun was balanced before him, and he carried in his hand a raw-hide whip.

  "How do you do, Stubbs?" said the colonel, riding

  "Just nosing about," said Stubbs, whipping off one or two dogs, that would occasionally show their teeth at Col. Price's nether limbs.

  "Who's got any niggers out, now?" continued the Colonel, for he took great interest in Stubbs's occupation.

  "Enough out," replied Stubbs, "but no 'rangement made for catching 'em. I'm done," he continued, "a fetching runaways home, just for jail fees; 'twont keep up my pack, and pay expenses."

  "That's right, Stubbs!" said the Colonel, looking approvingly on his friend; "that's right! if these rich planters won't 'antee up,' don't help 'em, that's my notion; but who's that ahead?" asked Price, as he discovered a young person on horseback, waiting in the road.

  "That's young Finch," said Stubbs, without showing any surprise; "that boy," he continued, "does take more interest in a nigger hunt than my dogs do, and he's just waiting thar until I come up, in hopes that he can see a 'brush.'"

  Price and Stubbs shook hands with Finch, a youth perhaps of fourteen, who was armed not only with a gun, but had a bowie knife sticking ostentatiously out of his breast. A little general conversation ensued, when Stubbs and Finch, opening a plantation gate, bade Col. Price "good day," and commenced trotting through the "cotton rows" towards the dark cypress swamps, that loomed up, like mountains in the distance.

  "And what do you think, Stubbs, will be our chance

  "Bad, very bad," said Stubbs; "none is out in this range now, but Busteed's old Phil; the fact is," said Stubbs, reining up his horse, "my dogs has got such a scear on the niggers now, that they won't run away,—the overseer has only to say, 'Now boys, if I cotch any of you leavin' you'll have Stubbs' dogs after you,' and that ends the thing. I ought to get a big price for doing that," suggested Stubbs, conscious that he was the victim of unrewarded merit.

  "And how did you know, Stubbs, that old Phil was in the brake?" inquired the young man.

  "'Cause I saw him yesterday, while 'still hunting;' come right on him, turned up on his back, sound asleep."

  "And why didn't you make him go home?" asked the lad, with some asperity.

  Now Stubbs had been led into an unfortunate remark, which he perceived the instant he had spoken, for he affected only to use his dogs when all other means of capture had failed; and he was afraid that Finch would get an idea that such was not the case; so he assumed a familiar air, and explained himself as follows:—

  "You see, Charley, I was 'still-hunting,' as I said, and looking for deer, and in wading Turtle Creek, for I was a-foot, you mind, I got my powder wet, and what could I do with such a fellow as Phil, if he had a mind to resist? No, no, Charley, I'm more careful than to track runaways, 'cept I 'am prepared,' so I tuck the best course I could, marked his den, and when he hears the 'barkers' after

  "That was very considerate," said young master Finch, evidently much flattered by Stubbs' manner; "it was very considerate indeed, and I think Busteed should be very much obliged to you."

  "To be sure he should!" echoed Stubbs, "and all the planters should; why, sir, but for me, the swamps would be as full of niggers as they is of wild hogs. I get badly paid for my sarvices, Mr. Finch, considerin' I have to feed my own dogs, and take the risks I run."

  "And what risks do you run?" inquired young Finch, carelessly patting his spirited little horse on the neck, and giving his gun a juster balance, as it rested before him on the pommel of the saddle.

  "Why, a heap of risks," said Stubbs, with the air of an injured man; "do you suppose that the niggers can be tuck, and nothing to do but say, 'If you please, Mr. Darkee, your master wants you hum?' Oh, no! I've known shooting and slashing going on afore now, that would hurt any man's feelins."

  "And where was that?" inquired young Finch, with greedy interest.

  "Why you see," said Stubbs, "that two or three years agone, old Duckeye, that's a preacher now, and Bill Blass as was, afore he died, both kept dogs,—well, once they were out huntin', and it seems their packs closed in on the same nigger,—I'm told that their cry was beautiful, when, as they say at camp-meetin', they met, and jined their voices in harmonious song; but Blass's hounds had

  "The row was tremendous, and they would have sent the nigger to kingdom cum, if the dogs, being strangers, had not got to fighting among themselves. There was a hullaboloo, sure enough; I was on the spot the next day, and the palmetto was smoothed down for a half acre, whar the fight was. While the dogs was going it among themselves, and the darkee was crying and yelling, old Duckeye and Blass got to quarrelling about who caught the nigger; Blass contendin', as was his right, that as his dogs was fust to find the trail, so the nigger was his,—and so they got to swearing and scrimmaging, and tucking in to each other their bowies and yelling and cursing, the dogs fell on 'em both, and such a row ensued as never was afore.

  "In this beautiful difficulty, the nigger got clean off, and Blass got stobbed in the side, and died that 'ere very night; and so you see, Mr. Finch, that the infernal runaways is dangerous. I often think of Blass!" said Stubbs, mournfully, "for you see," wiping his eyes with his coat sleeve, "that that 'ere dog thar, with the blood-shot eyes, was own nephy to Blass's Cuba, raised and imported, Santy Christy, as Blass called him."

  "Well, that was surprising," said young Finch, looking with admiration at the dog, that had such a distinguished uncle; and at the same time somewhat confounded by the conglomeration of Stubbs' story; "but how was it," he inquired, "that Duckeye got off from the——" and Finch hesitated to give a name to the deed pictured in his mind.

  "——the stobbing," said Stubbs. Finch nodded yes to the suggestion, and Stubbs went on—"you see the grand jury had Duckeye up, two or three times, but whar was the witnesses; it was agin the law to use the dogs and niggers to swar agin a white man in court, so the matter drapped."

  At this moment the two horsemen and their canine followers entered the thick woods, and in course of the fleeting hour, Busteed's old Phil was roused from his lair, and there were to be heard the sharp ringing notes of the open-mouthed pack, as they engaged in "the spirit stirring hunt."