“Is that all that he has for his dinner?” “Yes, sir.” “What is pea pie?” I asked. “Cow peas and bacon,” was the answer. With this, my Southern friend stepped to the back door of the house, asked the old man to point him out a fat turkey. The old darkey did this, saying, “There’s one, sir, but, Lord help me, Massa, don’t kill him.” The protest came too late. Up to the shoulder went the gun, and down fell the turkey. Now, turning to the old darkey, he said: “Old man, pick that turkey and roast him, and tell your Massa four big buckra men are coming to dine with him to-day, at six o’clock.” We got some corn-bread from the kitchen and went off shooting. A few minutes before six, we returned, and heard indeed a racket in that old cabin. The “Massa” was there, as we saw by the buggy, standing in the front yard; the horse browsing a few feet off, the harness in the buggy, and the master shouting out, “You tell me white men came here, kill my turkey, tell you to cook him, and you don’t know them? Who in the devil can they be?” No sooner had he got this out, when I appeared on the scene. Up went his arms in astonishment. “Why, Mc., is this you? Glad to see you and your friends.” Down we sat at his table, and had a dinner of small rice, pea pie, and roast turkey, washed down by a bottle of fine old Madeira, which he called “the blood of his ancestors.” I looked in vain for a side-board to put silver on, or any evidence of any past fête having been given on the premises. Our host was a thoroughly local man; one of those men who, when in Paris, would say, “I’m going to town,” when he proposed returning to Savannah, which, at that time, was to him the metropolis of America. This gentleman then, like others in the South, cultivated the belief that they alone lived well, and that there was no such thing as good society in New York or other Northern cities; that New Yorkers and Northern people were simply a lot of tradespeople, having no antecedents, springing up like the mushroom, who did not know how to live, and who, when they gave dinners to their friends, ordered them from a neighboring restaurant.