ain't what I want, and you know it well enough," the man shouted. "I
want to know for a fact--for a fact, mind you--what them folks up to the
great house is; which side they leans to, Union or Confederate. And if
you don't come down to my house this very night after dark with some
news of some kind, I'll take these yer diamonds straight to the Missus
and tell her where I got 'em. You know what I mean, so cl'ar yourself."

Glad to escape the whip with which the overseer constantly threatened
him while he was talking, Julius lost no time in making his way to the
great house; but he did not go near Mrs. Gray till she summoned him into
her presence to ask him if he had been in her room that day. Of course
he hadn't been upstairs at all, not even to "tote up de wash-watah, kase
dat was de gals' work and not his'n."

"I never heard that mother lost a breastpin," said Marcy, when Jack had
got this far with his narrative. "Did she find it again? Did Hanson give
it up?"

Instead of replying in words, Jack took hold of a small cord that
encircled his neck, and pulled his ditty-bag from beneath the bosom of
his flannel shirt. This he opened with great deliberation, taking from
it a small vial and a package wrapped in a piece of newspaper.

"What have those things to do with mother's breastpin?" demanded Marcy.
"What's in that bottle?"

"That vial contains my charm; and a most potent one it is," said the
sailor gravely.

"If you don't quit your nonsense and come to the point, I will leave you
and go into the house," said Marcy angrily.

"I'll bet you won't. This thing is getting interesting now, and it will
not be long before it will be more so," answered Jack. "Look at that!"

He had been unwrapping the newspaper while he was talking, and Marcy was
struck dumb with astonishment when he saw him bring the lost breastpin
to light.

"Jack," he faltered, "where did you get it?"

"The charm brought it. Hold on, now," exclaimed Jack, when his brother
turned away with an ejaculation indicative of the greatest annoyance and
vexation. "It helped bring it, and a little common sense, backed by an
insight into darkey nature, did the rest. Now, don't break in on me any
more. Mother will begin to wonder what's keeping us."

When Julius came to ponder the matter, he found that he was in the worst
scrape of his life. A house servant considered it an everlasting
disgrace to be sent to the field, and Julius thought he would about as
soo