china. As happy as a king was I, this new life was so like the old cleaning the knives, the glasses, and the silver, scrubbing the floors, washing the dishes, cleaning the boots, and even taking castor oil when I was sick. I did it all in an unreal but ever present Happy Island of my own, that no one could drive me out of. When Mr. P. was away I had many pleasant hours with my lonely mistress, who let me play on the piano, and heard me read and corrected my English, which had got damaged on board ship, for although Nicholson was a very good fellow, his English was not of the purest, and in many ways unfitted for the society of ladies. I used to watch the masons, too, building the house. The stone was brought from a harbour on the coast, about six miles away at the end of a very "heavy road," an expression which sounded funny to me at first, and seemed almost like putting the cart before the horse.

But a change came unexpectedly one day. One of the drivers was sick, and Mac came up to the house to know if Mrs. Pannier could spare "Jimmy" (this one handle fitted us all) to go with him to Paita that afternoon. Of course she could, for she knew I should like it. I showed myself so skilful that Mrs. Pannier took me, with Mr. P.'s consent, as her groom in her little carriage, when she drove round about the estate.

They had a very handsome and roomy double" waggon," as they called it, which I almost worshipped, it was so beautiful to look at. I could see myself in the varnished pannels with the Pannier coat of arms on the tip of my nose. It was so light that I, alone, could drag it on the level, and so you may fancy how it would spin along behind two spanking bays, who had nothing to do but draw it, except to eat and sleep next door to us; and their stable was certainly more weather proof than ours, and woe betide any Bob, Bully or otherwise, who dare ill-treat them. They held their heads much higher than we did, and had a much jollier life.

MADDER THAN USUAL.

199

Mac never ascended to the dignity of that box seat, but these noble animals had their own driver just as we had, only he was kinder and spoke more gently to them. When Mr. Pannier's temper was less uncertain than usual he used to drive them himself, but everybody gave him a very wide berth, and from force of habit, he one day drove them into the swamp; but he only laughed, and rubbed his hands together over it, while other people pulled them out.

My life at Stonehenge, however, was fast coming to an end.

CHAPTER XLII.

I GO FOR THE DOCTOR.

I SUPPOSE that I had been Mr. Pannier's property for about nine months when the circumstances occurred which I am now going to relate.

Mr. Pannier was ill in bed. He had come home the night before-madder than any one single hare in any one month could ever be. I thought he would have killed us all and burnt the house, for he marched about the place, flourishing his dagger, asked for wine, and instead of pouring it into the wine glasses which I brought, he held it up to the light, cried "Blood! Blood!" and flung the decanter to the other end of the room. Then he sat down in his chair, smoking; but suddenly started up, and tossed his lighted pipe into the muslin curtains, where the smouldering tobacco spread, and there would have been a blaze, if I had not stamped it out with my bare feet. Mrs. Pannier always went to her own room on these occasions, leaving the door open to hear what was going on.

What went on that evening was this. In a fit of jealousythe worst, but not the first, I had seen-he said I was

always interfering with him; and that Mrs Pannier cared more for me than she did for him, and that he was not master in his own house; that I was petted and spoilt and did nothing but eat and sleep, and that I should go and hoe the coffee plants like the rest. Mrs. Pannier told me never to answer him when he was angry, and I followed her advice. I had to bite my lips to do so; for it was too bad to hear that I did nothing when I worked all day, and took a pride in keeping the rooms and furniture clean and in order, just as if they had been my own-or Percy Wakefield's. I think my silence must have provoked him, for no sooner had I stamped out the smouldering tobacco, at the great risk of wounding my feet among the fragments of glass which strewed the floor, than he seized me by the collar of my shirt, and asked what I meant by saying that he was mad!

Afraid lest he

would take the dagger, which lay on the table, I tossed it out of his reach, and cried out murder nearly as loudly as Captain Will. There was nobody else in the house but Mrs. Pannier, who came to the door at my scream, and seeing the dagger on the floor near her, she wisely picked it up, and with a look of fear and helpless dismay upon her face, said:

"Go and call Mac-quick! For Heaven's sake!"

"Yes," cried the madman, "call Mac; he's my only friend!" and then he went on in French which I did not understand, and should not have waited to listen to, but that the louder he told me to go, the more he hindered me from going; his grasp of my neck tightening to a most unpleasant degree, while he gurgled out, as if there were blood in his throat :

"Go! you mad monkey! I know you are mad, for you think I am, I know you do, and that assures it.

My friend, mon ami Mac !"

Call Mac !

"I will, sir," I said, "I want to go, if you will leave hold of my collar."

MR. COACHMAN'S OPINION.

201

"Allez !" he startled me by roaring in my ear, and at the same moment launched me on my journey thence with a shove of his hot damp hand and a kick of his unsteady foot.

"Go! take your mother with you, and never let your black skin cloud my eyes again! We'll have no mad monkeys here. Mad Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu !"

Mac was called and grumbled terribly at this extra work. Next morning early the "waggon" was got ready, and Mac told me I had to go and see Mrs. Pannier. I went. Pale and trembling, but calm, she told me that I was to go in the carriage with the coachman for the doctor, who lived a few miles off.

“This,” said she, giving us a note, "is for the doctor, whose house is some little way from the road. The coachman will direct you. Doctor Angot."

"Very well," said I; "and when shall I wash up and do my work?"

Wait a

"I will do it to-day. You will not be back early. minute! Now, this note is for yourself. Don't open it until you leave the carriage and are alone on your way to the doctor's house. Then read it carefully, and do as it bids you. Now, Percy, you can go."

It was a fine dry day, and instead of a waste of water bristling with stumps, we drove slowly over a soft green plain, not without the stumps, of course, but it was much easier to steer clear of them when there was no driving rain. "Mad ?" exclaimed the coachman, as we floundered across a stream, and, expressing the very thought I had in my own mind, "Who but a crazy Frenchman would ever come to live in such an uncreated place as this? If he comes himself he shouldn't drag others along with him." I understood "others" to mean Mrs. Pannier. "The Doctor's house is handy compared with this here mad Pannier's. Hold up, Napoleon!"

The Doctor's house, which Mrs. Pannier had forgotten I had been to before, was cut off from the road by two pastures of con

siderable extent. There was a natural road leading through several quagmires to the back door, but the coachman said "Hang him if he took his horses round there."

"You're a light weight, Jimmy, and your legs are young. I'm going to set you down at the gate, and tell the Doctor the road's too heavy, and I ain't coming no nearer. Got the mississes (I hope I have put enough esses in it) Billy Ducks?" “No,” I said, “I didn't see them; she only gave me a letter.” Well, ain't that a Billy Ducks? How some folks's eddication is neglected, to be sure. And, lookee here, here's twenty francs and a list of things you're to get at the shop just beyond the Doctor's. Savvy? And if the missis owes them anythink, why you're to pay it. Them's my orders. "Yes," said I, " I understand."

Comprenny?"

Why don't you say 'Wee mounseer,' like a gentleman ? Here we are. Now down you get, and quick you travel, and back you come, for I won't wait; no not if it was Queen Victoria's own particular private sawbones himself."

Mr. Coachman spoke in a very different key when his master or his "missis" was about, being the most alert and civil servant I ever had the privilege of admiring; but, beginning with Mac, he considered the rest of the establishment his inferiors, his horses being the only creatures that he ever allowed upon an equality. The idea of their fatiguing their magnificent limbs to save a nigger's legs, or of their running the risk of catching cold waiting for a doctor! Not if he knew his own position and theirs.

Down I climbed, and was soon over the gate, and on my way to Doctor Angot's at a great rate; but as soon as I had a high plantation of cane between me and the coachman I slackened my speed, took out the second note, and stood still to read it. As well as I can remember, what it said was this: "Your master has told you to go. have nothing to do but to obey us.

I tell you so too. You The twenty francs are my