That Dan deserved punishment was undoubted.

He had at present no regular employment upon the estate.
Jake, his father, was head of the stables, and Dan had made himself useful in odd jobs about the horses, and expected to become one of the regular stable hands.

The overseer was of opinion that there were already more negroes in the stable than could find employment, and had urged upon Mrs.Wingfield that one of the hands there and the boy Dan should be sent out to the fields.

She, however, refused.
"I know you are quite right, Jonas, in what you say.

But there were always four hands in the stable in my father's time, and there always have been up to now; and though I know they have an easy time of it, I certainly should not like to send any of them out into the fields.