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She was always pretending to be sick, did nothing, & wasted away her
life. Now she belongs to me, she was wishes she was back again at Mam-
mas, & though she does more work now than formerly. I have had no
comfort in ither since I owned her, & am afraid I never will, & she is such
a bad example to her children, they would do much better without her
Edward is a smart, useful boy, & considering his training, very good.
I think he will be a fine servant. Clara seems smart, but promi-
ses to be pert. Minerva is smart, honest ^neat & truthful, but has a
violent temper & often inpertinent; on account of her many good qualities, I
am obliged to put up with some counteracting bad ones, & would be loth to
part with her; she is very capabale. She & Eliza are generally at daggers draw with
each other. Delia is truthful & honest, not very smart; but on the whole a
good servant. Lindy is cheerful, & so far as I can judge truthful, honest & capa-
ble. Jim is faithful & honest & I think will prove a valuable servant
quite capable, attends to his business & can do almost every thing. James
is singular, I cannot understand him, one thing is certain he is lazy to
an extreme, I am afraid he is of no account. We read a prayer & chapter in
the bible every night to the servants, we let them go to the Sunday school
we feed & clothe them well, we gratify all their reasonable desires.
We are kind to them, give them little to do, do not make a practice of inflict-
ing corporal punishment on them, only upon them when absolutely ^necessary.
If any one is entitled to good, faithful, contented, grateful servants, we are
Sheriff the boy my husband owned when we came to housekeeping
given him by his father, he was obliged to sell on account of his bad con-
duct, he robbed the Post office; he has twice run away from the person
to whom he was sold & returned to Greenville. The last I heard of him
he was in the Jail at Asheville, he was taken up & put there. Poor fellow, he
did not know when he was well off; & I expect has often bitterly repented
his bad conduct. I have devoted more space to servants than I intended-