_Sept. 24._ Limus' seine was shipped in the schooner. I have not yet
ordered any for 'Siah, for I thought it would be too late for him to
use it this year, and he had better wait and see if Limus' seine was
all right. Moreover, entre nous, I don't believe it will do him any
good to spend his time a-fishing. It has a sort of excitement, like
gold-digging, which unfits a man for steady, plodding industry,
witness Limus. Now the present demand for fish will not be permanent.
After the war the negroes will have to fall back upon field-labor for
a living, and it will be better for them if in the meanwhile they do
not acquire a distaste for steady labor and get vagrant habits. I
would talk this over with 'Siah and ask him in serious mood if he
really thinks best to spend so much money in fishing-gear, when he
could buy land with it by and bye.
Here begins again the rambling narrative of plantation
happenings.