g to be a rich man's quarrel and a poor man's
fight.' After all they dragged off my boy to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania,
and killed him a fighting for what? Why, for rich nigger owners. Our
young men hid in the swamps, but they were hunted up and forced into the
army. Niggers has been our ruin. Ef a white man takes a case before a
nigger justice, he gives the nigger everything, and the white man has to
stand one side. Now, would you folks up north like to have a nigger
justice who can't read nor count ten figgurs?"

I tried to comfort the poor man, by assuring him that outside of the
political enemies of our peace, the masses in the north were honestly
inclined towards the south now that slavery was at an end; and that
wrong could not long prevail, with the cheerful prospect of a new
administration, and the removal of all unconstitutional forces that
preyed upon the south.

The two beds in the single room of the cabin were occupied by the
family; while I slept upon the floor by the fire, with my blankets for
a couch and a roll of homespun for a pillow, which the women called
"_heading_." They often said, "Let me give you some heading for your
bed." We waited until eight o'clock the next day for the mists to
rise from the swamps. My daily trouble was now upon me. How could I
remunerate a southerner for his cost of keeping me, when not, in the
true sense of the word, an invited guest to his hospitality?

Wilson Edge sat by the fire, while his wife and little ones were
preparing to accompany me to see the paper boat. "Mr. Edge," I
stammered, "you have treated me with great kindness, your wife has been
put to some inconvenience, as I came in so unexpected a manner, and you
will really oblige me if you will accept a little money for all this;
though money cannot pay for your hospitality. Grant my wish, and you
will send me away with a light heart." The poor Cracker lowered his head
and slowly ran his fingers through his coal black hair. For a moment he
seemed studying a reply, and then he spoke as though HE represented the
whole generous heart of the south.

"_Stranger_," he slowly articulated, "_Stranger, I have known white men
to be niggers enough to take a stranger's money for lodgings and
vittles, but I am not that man_."

We found the canoe as it had been left the night before, and I was soon
pulling down the river. The great wilderness was traversed thirty miles
to the county town of Conwayborough, where the negroes