he said, kind o' mournful, and shakin'
her head,--"no, slave. I had once, but it was
taken from me."

"If you don't mind my bein' so bold," I said,
"where was you stayin' before you come here?"

"With devils!" she said, so fierce and sudden
that Bluff and I both jumped. "Speak not of
them, lest my wrath descend upon you."

This wasn't very encouragin'; but I wasn't a
bit frightened, and I set to work again,
talkin' and arguin', and kind o' hintin' that
there'd been some kings seen round the place
where I lived. That weren't true, o' course,
and I knew I was wrong, Dolly, to mislead the
poor creature, even if 't was for her good; but
I quieted my conscience by thinkin' that 't was
true in one way, for Hezekiah King and his nine
children lived not more 'n a mile from my
house.

Well, to make a long story short, I e'en
persuaded the Queen o' Sheba to come home with
me, and stay at my house till King Solomon
turned up. She didn't much relish the idee of
staying with a slave,--as she would have it I
was,--but I told her I didn't work for no one
but myself, and I wasn't no common kind o'
slave at all; so at last she give in, poor
soul, and followed me as meek as a lamb through
the hole, draggin' her big moose-skin--which
was her coronation-robe, she said, and she
couldn't leave it behind--after her, and Bluff
growlin' at her heels like all possessed.

Well, I got her home, and gave her some supper,
and set her in a cheer; and you never in all
your life see any one so pleased. She looked,
and looked, and you'd ha' thought this kitchen
was Marble Halls like them in the song. It
_did_ look cheerful and pleasant, but much the
same as it does now, after sixty years, little
Dolly. And if you'll believe it, it's this very
arm-cheer as I'm sittin' in now, that the Queen
o' Sheba sot in. It had a flowered chintz cover
then, new and bright. Well, she sat back at
last, and drew a long breath.

"You have done well, faithful slave!" she said.
"This is my own palace that you have brought me
to. I know it well,--well; and this is my
throne, from which I sh