154
                     Our Quarters
Arrival of Hills, Shaw and the Irish lieute-
nant, O�Gorman; drink and talk, then sup-
per with a little military crowd.   To a �min-
strel� entertainment, given by real negroes and
very well done.   Then back to quarters; then
with Howell to the big house.     Two of the lower
rooms locked up, so we slept in an upper-
chamber, on a double bed, with a couple of mat-
tresses beneath us and two coverlets above.
  11.  Sunday.   Somebody moving about below,
early, who subsequently proved to be Mann,
with whom the negroes supposed I had slept.
He had departed, after his visit.        Breakfast
provided by the negress, his slave, who lived
in the rear and served us in her little room.
I had seen her yesterday.   While we sat
eating there entered a young fellow, a lad of
about 18, who spoke to the negroes and ans-
wered me when spoken to.  He was the son of
our involuntary landlord, his name Nat,
and, as I learnt afterwards, had run away
from school to join the Confederate Army, but
had been brought back by his father.   His moth-
er lay dying of cancer and begged the boy to
stay at home.    She dying, Mann, at the instiga-
tion of a sister-in-law (whom the negroes seem-
ed to hate) moved over the river.   Howell and
I, after taking an observation of the premises,