oes wandering hither and thither,
unable to sleep, yet unable to attract sufficient attention from any
one, till Judge Custis, who had been waiting for hours for his creditor
to go, slipped down the back stairs in his old slippers, and came to the
kitchen among the colored people for company's sake.

His fine presence, and familiar, if superior, address, put a new
complexion at once on the African end of the house.

He picked up all the children by twos or threes, woolled them, chased
them, tossed them, and drove the lurid images of Aunt Hominy's mind out
of their spirits, and then caught the two young girls, and set Roxy on
his shoulder, and caught Virgie by the waist, and finally piled them on
Aunt Hominy, who ran behind her biscuit-block, and he bunched all the
children upon the party.

"De Lord a massy, Judge!" exclaimed Aunt Hominy, delighted, and showing
her white teeth, whichever side she revealed. "Go 'long, Judge, Missy
Custis ketch you! Miss Vessy's a-comin', befor' de Lawd!"

The children were screaming, getting into the riot more, while
pretending to try to get out, invading the Judge's back, and rubbing
their clean wool into his whiskers, and the two neat servants, brought
up like white children in his family, were not unaccustomed to either
jovial handling or petting from their master, which he commonly
concluded by a present of some kind.

"Old woman," said the Judge to Aunt Hominy, "can you give me a bit of
broiled something for my stomach? I want to eat it right here."

"Ha! yah! Don't got nothin' but a young chicken, marster! Mebbe I kin
git ye a squab outen de pigeon-house in de gable-yend."

"That's it, Hominy!" exclaimed Judge Custis; "a tender squab, a little
toast in cream, a glass of morning milk, and a bunch of fresh celery,
will just raise my pulse, and put courage into me. Get it, my faithful
old girl; it's the last I may ask of you, for old Samson Hat is going to
own you next."

"Me? No, sah! I'll run away from Prencess Anne fust. De man dat cleans
ole Meshach Milburn's debbil hat sha'n't nebber hab me."

"Well, it'll be one of you. If you don't take Samson, Roxy must, or
Virgie. The old fellow will be very influential with our new master,
and, Hominy, we're all depending on you to make him so comfortable that
he will just keep the family together."

Sobriety came in on this attempted witticism, and the old cook saw a
film grow into the Judge's smiling eyes.

"Old marster!" she e