my deppyties?" said Morgan. "I was
just going to look at 'em. That big black isn't going to die, is he?"

I turned back with him to the door of the shed, and he stood gazing in.

"No; he won't die this time. But I don't much like his looks, Master
George. Seems the sort of fellow to turn ugly and knock me down with
the big hoe, and I shan't like that, nor my wife neither. Where's young
smutty?"

"Under the corn-stalks in the corner."

"What, hiding?"

"Yes."

"Here, stop a minute till I get the pitchfork; I'll soon turn him out."

"No, no," I cried; "they're to be treated gently."

"And as if they were human beings," said my father's stern voice, for he
had come silently behind us. "Have the goodness to remember that,
Morgan. If I am to be a slave-owner, my people shall meet with
consideration, and not be treated as if they were the beasts of the
field. Do you understand?"

"Oh yes, sir, I understand," said Morgan, good-humouredly; "you can
count on me doing what's right by them. They can't help the colour of
their skins."

"I am satisfied," said my father, quietly, and he left us staring in
that heavy, sombre face before us--a face full of despair, but one to
which we could not address words of sympathy.

The change that took place in the man day by day was wonderful, as far
as health was concerned. In three days he was walking slowly about; in
a week he was ready to take the tool in hand which Morgan gave him, and
he went on clumsily with the work he was set to do, but displaying
strength that was the admiration of us all. But he was moody,
shrinking, and suspicious, and the boy was precisely the same. For it
always seemed to me that the boy was constantly on the look-out to avoid
a blow or some ill-usage on my part, and his companion to be expecting
it from my father. The treatment they had been receiving for months had
utterly cowed them, but when they began to realise that they had fallen
among friends, the change was rapid indeed.

Of course they could not understand us, and when they spoke, which was
very seldom, their language was utterly beyond our comprehension; but we
got on pretty well by signs, after a few weeks when the change came.

It was one glorious afternoon, when, after worrying Morgan into getting
me some bait, I prepared my rough lines for fishing, and while I was
disentangling the hooks which had been thrown carelessly together, the
boy who was passing nodded and look