"No _buts_, Monsieur Howard! You have got the money, you must buy a score more negroes; we will pick out some good ones for you. To-morrow every thing shall be arranged." On the morrow came young Menou, an active intelligent youth of twenty. The day was passed in visiting the plantation, and in a very few hours the young man had gained my full confidence. I recommended my interests and the negroes to his care; and the same evening his father and myself went on board the Ploughboy steamer, which was to convey us to the residence of the Menous. CHAPTER THE SECOND. CREOLE LIFE. The good Creole had certainly behaved to me in a more Christian-like manner than most of my own countrymen would have done; and of this I had before long abundant proof. A little after nightfall, the steamboat paused opposite the house of the justice of peace; and I went on shore to communicate with him concerning my faithless steward. Although so early, the functionary was already going to bed, and came out to me in his nightshirt. "Knew it all, dear Mr Howard," said he with the utmost _naivete_; "saw every bale that they stole from you, or tried to steal from you." "And for Heaven's sake, man!" I exclaimed, "why did you not put a stop to it?" "It was nothing to me," was the dry answer. "If you had only given information to my attorney!" "No business of mine," returned the man. Then fixing his eyes hard upon me, he commenced a sort of lecture, for which I was by no means prepared. "Ah!" said he, pushing his nightcap a little over his left ear, "you young gentlemen come out of the north with your dozen blackies or so, lay out some two or three thousand dollars in house and land, and then think you can play the absentee as much as you like, and that you do us a deal of honour when you allow us to collect and remit your income, for you to spend out of the country. I'm almost sorry, Mr Howard, that you didn't come six months later." "In order to leave the scoundrel time to secure his booty, eh?" "At any rate, he has worked, and has wife and child, and has been useful to the land and country." "The devil!" I exclaimed, mighty indignant. "Well--for a judge, you have a singular idea of law!" "It mayn't be Bony's code, nor yet Livingston's, but I reckon it's justice," replied the man earnestly, tapping his forehead with his forefinger.