making of sugar; and from thence to the “curing-house,” to see the sugar “potted,” (that is, packed in hogsheads, tierces, or barrels.) Then there were staves to be given out to the coopers, and boards to the carpenter, besides dispensing medicines to the sick slaves, and cane-tops to the hungry mules. And then, when all these multitudinous occupations were performed, and the different store-houses well secured, he proceeded to the “great house,” and, after scrubbing his face with brown soap and a jack towel, smoothing, if possible, his straggling, sun-burnt locks, and exchanging his dirty white jacket for one of broad-cloth, or a coat whose cuffs and collar bore ample marks of time, he made his appearance in the dining-room or hall, where a high stool or an education chair was placed for him near his master, at whose old jokes and worn-out tales he felt obliged to laugh, while he indulged in such luxuries as fowls’ necks and odd ends of pudding, washed down by a single glass of wine. His labours were now over for the night, unless it were the sugar harvest, and then he was expected to return to the boiling-house, where, amid clouds of densest steam, he remained until twelve or one in the morning, and then, as the last copper was cooled down, he marched off the tired negroes, and, having well locked the door, quitted the furnace-like heat of the building to wend his weary way home in the cold night air. During former days of slavery, it has often been the practice to carry on the boiling of sugar throughout the whole night. Upon such occasions, the poor overseer had to keep his place in the boiling-house, to see that the slaves attended to their duty. There is an anecdote told of a West Indian overseer which proves him to have been rather clever in the art of dissimulation. He was a man of reserved manners and of extreme taciturnity, seldom speaking to the negroes, unless, indeed, giving them a stroke or two from a rattan which, from custom, he carried in his hand, can be termed _speaking;_ but he was a favourite with his employer, who thought him _watchful_ as well as careful—two very necessary virtues in days of slavery. From some cause or the other, he had lost the sight of one of his eyes, but which disaster, from a latent spark of pride, he was very desirous of concealing. While in the “boiling-house” during the day, quietly seated in his cherry-tree chair, and narrowly watching the movements of the negroes, it was his custom to place his hand over the affected organ. But as evening came on, and “tired nature” craved repose, he altered his plan of operation, and covering his other eye, he allowed his rayless orb to glare “horribly stern” upon the toiling slaves, who, unconscious of his visual defect, and noting his movements, by which one of his eyes was ever apparently fixed upon them, exclaimed—“Eh! eh! war dis?—buckra oberseer cleber true; he make one yeye (eye) sleep while toder keep watch!”