ved himself only recently, and his dark, curling side-whiskers and
clean lips, and the tuft of goatee in the hollow of his chin, and
intelligent, high forehead, seemed altogether out of place in this
darksome eyrie of the sad and friendless.

"Is he your friend, sir?" asked this man, turning towards Samson. "He
must have a good conscience if he is, for he slept soon after he was
brought here, and has never uttered a single complaint."

"And you have, I reckon?" said the waterman.

"Oh, yes, sir; I have been treated with such ingratitude. It would break
any gentleman's heart to hear my tale. Who is your friend, sir?"

"Samson, wake up, old bruiser!" cried Phoebus, shaking the sleeper
soundly; "you didn't give in to one or two, by smoke!"

"Is it you, Jimmy?" the old negro finally said, with a sheepish
expression; "why, neighbor, I'm glad to see you, but I'm sorry, too. A
black man dey don't want to kill yer, caze dey kin sell him, but a white
man like you dey don't want to keep, and dey dassn't let him go."

"A _white_ man here?" exclaimed the superior-looking person; "what can
they mean?"

"I'm ironed so heavy, Jimmy," continued Samson, "dat I can't set up
much. My han's is tied togedder wid cord, my feet's in an iron clevis,
and a ball's chained to de clevis."

"Give me your hands," exclaimed Jimmy; "I'll settle them cords, by
smoke!"

In a minute he had severed the cords at the wrist, and the intelligent
yellow man pleaded that a similar favor be done for him, to which the
sailor acceded ungrudgingly.

"Jimmy," said Samson, "if it's ever known in Prencess Anne--as I 'spect
it never will be, fur we're in bad hands, neighbor--dar'll be a laugh
instid of a cry, fur ole boxin' Samson, dat was kidnapped an' fetched to
jail by a woman!"

"You licked by a woman, Samson?"

"Yes, Jimmy, a woman all by herseff frowed me down, tied my hands an'
feet, an' brought me to dis garret. I hain't seen nobody but her an'
dese yer people, sence I was tuk."

"Ha!" exclaimed the dejected mulatto, "that's a favorite feat of Patty
Cannon. She is the only woman ever seen at a threshing-floor who can
stand in a half-bushel measure and lift five bushels of grain at once
upon her shoulders, weighing three hundred pounds."

"I ain't half dat," Samson smiled, quietly, "an' she handled me, shore
enough. You remember, Jimmy, when I leff you by ole Spring Hill church,
to go an' git a woman on a little wagon to show me de way to Laurel