"Heart alive, lad!" he replied with a careless laugh, "they are but niggers, and know naught else of life but to toil.  Treat them kindly, and they’ll take care to work still less.  And, mark my words, lad, if ever it comes to pass that these blackamoors are freed, as Master Penn would persuade us to do, then these islands are doomed.  Never a stroke will they do save under compulsion----  There, look at that!"