'Yas, sar, and dey'm all written up till a week back. I reckon _you_ kin pick 'em out, Mr. Kirke, dough master Robert he say he don't understand my way ob keepin' 'em.' I opened the books, and any man of business will appreciate my surprise to find them kept by 'double entry.' Cotton, corn, and turpentine had each its separate account, and at a glance I could see how much had been made or lost by the production of each staple. The handwriting was plain and bold, and the general appearance of the ledger compared favorably with that of a much larger one I knew of, which was the pride of an experienced bookkeeper. 'Why, Joe, I'm astonished,' I exclaimed with unaffected gratification; 'you write like a schoolmaster.' A flush, which would have been a blush on a lighter skin, overspread the negro's face, as he replied: 'I don't hab practice 'nuff, Mr. Kirke, to write bery well.' 'Practice!' said Preston, 'he has constant practice; he writes the love letters of all the darkies in the district.' 'It am so, dat's a fac, sar', said Joe, a quiet humor twinkling in his eye. 'One ob Cunnel Dawsey's folk came to me tother day--his wife had been sold down Souf, an' he wanted to say to har, dat dough ribers rose, and mountins run atween 'em, he'd neber hab nuffin to do wid no oder 'ooman--so he come to me, and I wrote de letter; an' when I'd a put in all de ribers, an' de mountins, an' eber so many runs, an' thought I'd done it right smart, I read it ober to him, but he say he sort o' reckoned it warnt quite done up 'pletely, not 'xactly 'cluded; an' he 'sisted dat I muss 'sert a pose scrip, axin' her to ''scuse de bad writin'.'' 'And you did it?' 'Yes, sar, I done it.' 'Well, Joe, the important thing just now, is how much you owe. Give me a slip of paper, and let me put these balances together.' 'I'se done dat, Mr. Kirke; here dey am,' and he handed me a correctly drawn-up statement, showing Preston's exact liabilities. I glanced over it, compared it with the footings in the ledger, and said: 'I see by this, Preston, that you owe seventeen hundred dollars, floating debt; twelve hundred dollars, interest on your mortgage, and are overdrawn five hundred dollars on our house.' 'Yes, so Joe makes it, and I reckon he's correct.' 'But dar'm de six hunderd you 'cepted fur master Robert, de oder day, in Newbern--dat ain't counted in,' said Joe. 'Well, all told, it's four thousand, besides the note I have given for Phyllis. What do you calculate on to pay it, Preston?' 'I don't know. How can we pay it, Joe?' 'We moight sell de two stills, and some ob de hosses; I reckon dey'd be 'nuff,' replied the black; 'but de raal trubble, master Robert, am what's cummin'; we'm gwine ahind ebery day, 'case we lose money on ebery crop ob turpentine. Nuffin pay now but de corn and de cotton, and we don't raise 'nuff ob dem to do no good.'