_Monday, May 26._ Had quite a talk with Flora over the bed-making; she
asked me to hem her a muslin head-hankercher which York had sent her
from Hilton Head, and re-string some beads which had come too and been
broken. I promised to do it, telling her she would have things enough
to remember me by--to which she responded, "Neber forget you, long as
I hab breath for draw." I find they are all beginning to feel badly at
our leaving,[45] now they know we shall really go so soon.
This is 'lowance day, and school is always late Monday P. M., but
to-day, as they were all together, after they got through their corn,
Ranty distributed some salt and mackerel Mr. Philbrick had for them,
which kept them till six, our dinner-time, and they lost school
altogether, greatly to their regret. We went to the porch to watch the
groups, and as they passed us with their baskets on their heads and
fish wrapped in green leaves in their hands, they all looked up and
curtseyed, with a "tank 'ee, Massa."
When Flora came in with the tea just after, she was muttering, "Neber
see a marn so payshun as Mr. Philbri'," and then, turning to H. as if
she was afraid she did not appreciate his virtue,--"Miss Helen, not
two body in de worl' so payshun as him." I don't know what had
excited her admiration just then, but she probably never saw a white
man before who did not swear, at least. For even her favorite Mass'
Clan's she does not consider as immaculate, though he would "nebber
drive nigger."
_May 28._ To the [Pine Grove] quarters to say good-bye all round,
stopping at each house. They seemed quite sorry to have us go,
expressing their regret by presents of eggs. I filled my pockets and
H. her hands; then Mily held her apron and walked home with us; she
counted over three dozen in all. My children came in the evening, and
we went to bed early; and so passed the last day at William Fripp's
Pine Grove Plantation.
_Coffin's Point, May 29._ Before ten the two carts were ready, and
Flora and Joe mounted one to help us get to rights. Then H. and Mr.
Philbrick went off in the buggy with the span. I was to have gone in
the sulky, but harness fell short, and I had to wait till Tom could
come back with the mule-cart. So I collected the children and had a
last school for them, and when Tom came, locked the door, mounted the
sulky (with the white umbrella) onto which the saddles had been tied,
and, followed to the gate by the whole tribe singing "A, B, C," took
my departure, the children shouting as I bid them good-bye, "We come
for see you!"
As I drove up to the house [at Coffin's] the yard really looked
attractive, as it has some grass in it, though I had not thought the
house so. But a day's work has made a vast change, and to-night it
looks quite habitable. It was built in good style originally, but it
is very old, and has been so abused by the negroes in the first
place, and then from having had soldiers living in it for so many
months, it is very shabby. It must have been handsomely furnished, to
judge from the relics, for they are nothing more--rosewood tables,
sideboards and washstands with marble tops, drawers and doors broken
in and half gone, sofas that must have been of the best, nothing left
but the frame; no one can conceive of the destruction who has not seen
it. The rooms are twelve feet high, and the lower story is more than
that from the ground. The air is delicious, and we shall find the
blinds which are on the second story a luxury. I have my own little
bed, bureau, marble-top washstand, _three_ chairs and a large
wardrobe, to say nothing of a piano, in my chamber, which is I should
think eighteen feet square.