FEBRUARY 16.
On my arrival I found that idle rogue Nato, as usual, an inmate of the
hospital, where he
regularly passes at least nine
months out of the twelve. He was with infinite difficulty per-suaded at the end of a fortnight to employ himself about the
carriage-horses for a couple of days; but on the third he re-turned to the hospital, although the medical attendants, one and
all, declared nothing to be the matter with him, and the doctors
even refused to insert his name in the sick-list. Still he persisted
in declaring himseld to be too ill to do a single stroke of work :
so on Thursday I put him into one of the sick-rooms by himself,
and desired him to get well with the doors locked, which he
would find to the full as easy as with the doors open ; at the
same time assuring him that he should never come out till he
should be sufficiently recovered to cut canes in the field. He
held good all Friday; but Saturday being a holiday, he declared
huself to be in a perfect state of health, and desired to be re-leased. However, I was determined to make him suffer a little
his lying and obstinacy, and would not suffer the doors to be
opened for him till this morning, when he quitted the hospital,
saluted on all sides by loud huzzas in congratulation of his
amended health, and which followed him during his whole
progress to the cane-piece. I was informed that a lad named
Epsom, who used to be perpetually running away, had been
stationary for the last two years. So on Wednesday last, as he
happened to come in my way, I gave him all proper commendation for
having got rid of his bad
habits; and to make the
praise better worth his having, I added a maccarony: he was
gratified in the extreme, thanked me a thousand times, promised
most solemnly never to behave ill again, and ran away that very
night. However, he returned on Saturday morning, and was
brought to me all rags, tears, and penitence, wondering " how
he could have had such
bad manners as to make massa fret."
