The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

ALIFE OF ANXIETY. 8

281

It was evident that Mr. Henderson lived in continual
anxiety, lest there might be an outbreak among his slave
people. This impression was deepened, when he said to me
in a low voice, aside: -" That fellow, Bryson, is so severe in
his discipline, that I am constantly afraid he may provoke
the servants to retaliatory measures. Insurrection is a word
whose horrible meaning we well understand in Virginia.
If I could replace Bryson with a better man, who would, at
the same time, be as good a manager, I wouild do it
immediately."
It was necessary for Mr. Henderson to return with
Bridgman, for the con flag ration had thrown the servants
into consternation, and they were wild with excitement. In
their efforts to solve the problem that troubled their master,
they drew upon their imaginations, always active, and
framed explanations so full of superstition, that those who
uttered them as well as those who listened, were overcome
with fright. Before leaving us to see his wife, Mr. Henderson expressed regrets that he should miss the ball, and the
debut of his daughters at their first dancing party, and, with
a vast deal of badinage, he sketched the sensation he
expected them to create by the charm of their beauty, and
the grace of their movements. He exacted from them a
promise to report tohi faithfully all the gaities he should
miss, - to dance every Virginia reel and basket cotillion
with the spirit of the days when he was young - and, above
all things, to come away from the ball "1heart-whole," as he
would "1tolerate no courting on his plantation except among
the darkies." One of the frequent frolics ensued, the children chasing their father round and round the house, and