It too often happened that that
little was not sufficient to meet the demands of the overseer
himself.
The house at Mount Pleasant had been an irregular, low-roofed,
picturesque residence, built with only one floor, and surrounded on
all sides by large verandahs. In the old days it had always been
kept in perfect order, but now this was far from being the case. Few
young bachelors can keep a house in order, but no bachelor young or
old can do so under such a doom as that of Maurice Cumming. Every
shilling that Maurice Cumming could collect was spent in bribing
negroes to work for him. But bribe as he would the negroes would not
work. "No, massa: me pain here; me no workee to-day," and Sambo
would lay his fat hand on his fat stomach.
I have said that he lived generally alone. Occasionally his house on
Mount Pleasant was enlivened by visits of an aunt, a maiden sister of
his mother, whose usual residence was at Spanish Town. It is or
should be known to all men that Spanish Town was and is the seat of
Jamaica legislature.
But Maurice was not over fond of his relative.
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