My home was not now the pleasant place it had formerly been.

A change had taken place, both in Master Hugh, and in his once pious and affectionate wife.

The influence of brandy and bad company on him, and the influence of slavery and social isolation upon her, had wrought disastrously upon the{143} characters of both.

Thomas was no longer "little Tommy," but was a big boy, and had learned to assume the airs of his class toward me.

My condition, therefore, in the house of Master Hugh, was not, by any means, so comfortable as in former years.