not be honest. I can't take it.'

No words can picture the look on the woman's face as she said:

'Oh! do take it, Master Robert! _Do_ take it. I'll work. I'll make it. I
can make it _very soon_, Master Robert. Oh! _do_ take it!'

'How much is the judgment?' I asked.

'Only six hundred; but old ---- has it, and he has no mercy. He'll have
the money at once, or sell every thing--the negroes--every thing!' and
he choked down the heavy groan which half-escaped his lips.

'Have you no produce at home?'

'Yes, about a thousand barrels of rosin; but the river is low. I can't
get it down.'

'Well, that's worth five hundred where it is. Any cotton?'

'Only eleven bales--low middling.'

'That's three hundred more. Consider it ours, and draw at ninety days
for the whole, judgment and all.'

The woman had risen during this conversation, and stood with her eyes
riveted on his face and mine as if her eternal destiny hung on our
words. When I made the last remark she staggered toward me and fell, as
if dead, at my feet. I brought water from the stream hard by, and we
soon restored her to herself. Preston then lifted her from the floor,
and placing her tenderly on the bench, said, taking my hand:

'She and her children are very dear to me. You can not understand how
much you have done for me. Words are weak--they can not tell you. I will
pay you out of the next crop. Meanwhile, I will re-draw and keep it
afloat.'

'Do as you like about that. Where is your owner, Phyllis?'

'Outside, dear master. You'll know him. He's more of us poor creatures
with him.'

'Come, Preston, let's see him at once--we've no time to lose--the stage
will be along soon.'

'I've no heart for trading now. You manage it, my friend.'

'Well, as you say; but you'd better be with me. Come.'

'I will in a moment.'

He lingered behind, and when I left the cabin was speaking in a low tone
to the slave-woman. Thinking he would follow in a moment, I went in
quest of the trader.

THE UNION.

Our rebellion is the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the
attention and affects the material interests of the world. The armies
engaged outnumber those of Napoleon. Death never had such a carnival,
and each day consumes millions of treasure. Great is the sacrifice, but
the cause is peerless and sublime. If God has placed us, as in 1776, in
the van of the great contest for the rights and liberties of man; if he
has again assigned us the post of