something to eat.

* * * * *

INSTRUCTIONS IN MEDICINE.

After some time, Boss began to tell me the names of medicines and their
properties. I liked this and seemed to grasp the idea very well. After
giving me a number of names he would make me repeat them. Then he would
tell me the properties of each medicine named, how it was used and for
what purpose and how much constituted a dose. He would drill me in all
this until I knew it and, in a short time, he would add other names to
the list. He always showed me each medicine named and had me smell and
carefully examine it that I might know it when seen again. I liked this,
and used to wish that I was as wise as my master. He was very precise,
steady and gentle in any case of sickness, and, although he had long
retired from the medical world, all recognized his merit wherever he
went. I used to go to the woods and gather slippery elm, alum root and
the roots of wild cherry and poplar, for we used all these in
compounding medicines for the servants.

* * * * *

THE OVERSEER--WHIPPINGS AND OTHER CRUELTIES.

The overseer was a man hired to look after the farm and whip the slaves.
Very often they were not only cruel, but barbarous. Every farmer or
planter considered an overseer a necessity. As a rule, there was also on
each plantation, a foreman--one of the brighter slaves, who was held
responsible for the slaves under him, and whipped if they did not come