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Show 12 HOE BUCK. tracted some modes oft hought and feeling soxncwhat more 1nasculine than the ua~ ivc traits of her char-acter. In intro(lucincr to the r eader the Fairf:txe ' of Roc-buc. k ·we honl(l not pas~ over the Colonel's L:-tche1or brot1~er ]~ichard; but hi~ loquacious habit 'vill 1nakc him. kn~wn to all " 'ho cotne 'vithin the sonn<l of his voice. lie had an cst:-tte of his own, an<l kept up a don1e tic eslab1i '1nncni upon it. ; but the greater part of hi~ tin1e \Vas :-;pent !It l{.oebnck, or, in \vinLer, at Richmond. lie ·waH two y ars younger than his brother, the Colonel, and wn., a 1nan of sn1:-tll stature. But by so1ne forgotten trick of n nrsery notnenolatnro he had been ca.lled in childhood "big brother," anJ. so he 'va still so1netin1es playfully styled by the larger nnd elder Frederick. lie had been educate~ as a physician, and entered npon the practice of lus profession under the influence of young a1nbition. But, after a fc,v years, the easy 1nuependenee of hereditary acres tClnptcd hi1n away fi·o1n a vocation so laborious. lie \vas once disappointed in an afl'air of love, and that ordinary event, touching one of the keys of a \vhin1sieal nature, made hitn forswear tnatritnony altogether. lie r etained the title of Doctor, aud as he grc\V to be an old baeht4>r, he 'vns generaliy nn.tncd, with curt i~uniliarity, Doetor Dick. llis style of couver:ation did not rcpre~s the liberty ,vhich 1ncn were iue1ined to take with his nan1c, for it \V:lS frequently a style of sn.tirical banter and halfcoinic extravagance. lie scn1etin1C:::; nffectecl a bitterness of invective that n1ight have convicted hirn of extren1c ill-nature, if his conduct had not proved that the roughness of his tongue 'vas to his heart as a c.rabbed preface to a generous vol~mo. HOEBUOK. 13 CIIAPTER II. SLAVES AT ROEBUCK. ONE mornin.g in the spring of the year eio-hteen ~~ndrcd and Sixty-one, Colonel Fairf:1.x, accon~n cr to lS custom, roclc_ out from his hou e to make --~ho grand ~·oun~l of ln~ plantn.tion. \V e are not to nc 'On1- ~a.ny ln~l With _a VlC\V ?fob erving the scenery of tho f~nm, or of noting the InforJnation he obt.aineu or tho orders he gave or_ the pr_ogre s of culti,·ation. Those ~h? would learn In ~ctnil how the agriculture of Virginia 'vas so greatly Improved, as it hn.s been clurincr the last quarter of a century, 'vith imJncnse n.cl van tao·~ to bot~ races w·ho inhabit there, 'vill find nlo~o authentic onr~es .of infornl~ttion. \V e arc to chronic~ e only a fc,~ lncidents of the colonel's Inorning rille t at have an_ lntel:est nlore person:-tl and less gravo than the topiCs of an agricultural report. . Not far frOJn the mausion stood several neo-ro cab· 1n a clu.s. tc :·, an(1 n.ronn d thctn swanned a nb umber Ion~f yon~g .Afn?ans, looking like bees about their hives, ~Ut lclhng hke butterflieS in the early SUnShine. n· I_ 1 n cr to th d f ... H.l o c oor o one of those cabins, the colonel clis-nlountcd and en~ered it to Jnake a visit, 'vhich he re1p e·a ted aln1ostb daily. Within \vas an oil <. neo-ro man ~Ing upon n ?d, from ·which he rose 'vhCJ~ he sa·\V his. master COJnlng to the door. Ilis age \vas evidently Veiy great, and he reckoned it roundly at a hundr d He 'vore a long wh't b ·d h' e · l o eai ' w lch he preserved at |
