all him Daddy
Jack. He was brought to Georgia in a slave-ship when he was about twenty
years old, and remained upon one of the sea-islands for several years.
Finally, he fell into the hands of the family of which Uncle Remus's
little partner was the youngest representative, and became the trusted
foreman of a plantation, in the southern part of Georgia, known as the
Walthall Place. Once every year he was in the habit of visiting the Home
Place in Middle Georgia, and it was during one of these annual visits
that the little boy found him in Uncle Remus's cabin.

Daddy Jack appeared to be quite a hundred years old, but he was probably
not more than eighty. He was a little, dried-up old man, whose weazened,
dwarfish appearance, while it was calculated to inspire awe in the minds
of the superstitious, was not without its pathetic suggestions. The
child had been told that the old African was a wizard, a conjurer, and a
snake-charmer; but he was not afraid, for, in any event,--conjuration,
witchcraft, or what not,--he was assured of the protection of Uncle
Remus.

As the little boy entered the cabin Uncle Remus smiled and nodded
pleasantly, and made a place for him on a little stool upon which had
been piled the odds and ends of work. Daddy Jack paid no attention to
the child; his thoughts seemed to be elsewhere.

"Go en shake han's, honey, en tell Daddy Jack howdy. He lak good
chilluns." Then to Daddy Jack: "Brer Jack, dish yer de chap w'at I bin
tellin' you 'bout."

The little boy did as he was bid, but Daddy Jack grunted ungraciously
and made no response to the salutation. He was evidently not fond of
children. Uncle Remus glanced curiously at the dwarfed and withered
figure, and spoke a little more emphatically:

"Brer Jack, ef you take good look at dis chap, I lay you'll see mo'n you
speck ter see. You'll see sump'n' dat'll make you grunt wusser dan you
grunted deze many long year. Go up dar, honey, whar Daddy Jack kin see
you."

The child went shyly up to the old African and stood at his knee. The
sorrows and perplexities of nearly a hundred years lay between them; and
now, as always, the baffled eyes of age gazed into the Sphinx-like face
of youth, as if by this means to unravel the mysteries of the past and
solve the problems of the future.

Daddy Jack took the plump, rosy hands of the little boy in his black,
withered ones, and gazed into his face so long and steadily, and with
such curious earnestness, that