Her son would not be pacified.

He said the punishment was a shame--a shame; that he was the master of the boy, and no one--no, not his mother,--had a right to touch him; that she might order him to be corrected, and that he would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but no one should lay a hand on his boy.

Trembling with passionate rebellion against what he conceived the injustice of procedure, he vowed--actually shrieking out an oath, which shocked his fond mother and governor, who never before heard such language from the usually gentle child--that on the day he came of age he would set young Gumbo free--went to visit the child in the slaves' quarters, and gave him one of his own toys.
The young black martyr was an impudent, lazy, saucy little personage, who would be none the worse for a whipping, as the Colonel no doubt thought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madam Esmond insisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when his indignant grandson called out, "You let mamma rule you in everything, grandpapa." "Why, so I do," says grandpapa.

"Rachel, my love, the way in which I am petticoat-ridden is so evident that even this baby has found it out." "Then why don't you stand up like a man ?" says little Harry', who always was ready to abet his brother.
Grandpapa looked queerly.
"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said.

"I am an old gentleman, and standing fatigues me." On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itself in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the first of the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and would laugh and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom the younger had seldom a word to say.