u want poor ole Pomp go drown self?"

"Yes," I said, sourly.

"Pomp go jump in de ribber."

"Go on then."

"You nebber see poor ole Pomp, nebber no more."

"Don't want to."

"Oh, Mass' George!--oh, Mass' George!"

These words came so piteously that all my ill-humour gave way to pity
for the boy, who was as affectionate as he was passionate by nature; but
his next words hardened me, and I stood fast, trying to hide my mirth as
he broke out in a lachrymose way, pitying himself.

"Poor lil nigger! Oh dear, dear, poor lil black nigger slave! Nobody
care dump poor ole Pomp!"

Then there was a long pause.

"You want Pomp go drown self, Mass' George?"

"Yes," I said. "Mind you don't get wet."

"Eh?"

"I say, go and have a good dry drown."

"How you do dat all?"

"I don't know. Be off."

"Poor ole Pomp! De 'gators eat um all up like lil yam."

"Ha--ha--ha--ha--ha!" I burst out, for I could contain myself no
longer. The comparison to the "lil yam" was too much for me, and as I
faced round, good-humoured once more, and ready to go and bathe or do
anything with the boy who was my only companion, he showed his teeth at
me fiercely, made a run, jumped over the fence into the garden, and I
saw him dash down the middle path toward the forest as hard as he could
go.

I stood looking in the direction he had taken for a minute or two, and
felt disposed to go after him; but I had seen him get into a temper
before, and get out of it again, and I knew that next time we met all
this would have passed away from both of us like a cloud.

"No, I won't go after him," I said to myself; "it will make him vain and
conceited, and he's bad enough as it is. Poor ole Pomp! Poor lil
nigger! What a rum fellow he can be when he likes!"

This little episode had quite carried off the sour feeling from which I
had suffered, and I began to look about me, enjoying the beauty of the
morning, forgetting all about Pomp, who had, no doubt, I thought, found
out a nice sunny spot and gone off to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

No one would have thought there had been a flood to have seen the garden
and plantation so soon after the waters had gone down; for where the
slimy mud had lain in pools, it had cracked all over till it was creased
and marked like an alligator's back, through which cracks the tender
green growth soon thrust itself, to spring up at a wondrous rate, as if
glad to be fertilised by the soft alluvial soil.