knowin' what hahm maght come to him. An' he neveh _did_ have no hotel in
that town, seh,--_no_, seh. He been talkin' reglah foolishness all that
theah time. An' he sais: 'Yo' stay by me, boy. Ah's go'n' a' go West to
mek mah fo'chun.' Well, seh, Ah was lookin' fo' a place to mek some
fo'chun mahse'f fo mah folks, an' that theah Cincinnati didn't seem jes'
th' raght place to set about it, so Ah sais, 'Thank yo' ve'y much,
Mahstah Cunnel,' an' Ah stays by him fo' a consid'ble length of time."

But, little by little, after their coming to our town the Colonel had
alienated his companion by a lack of those qualities which Clem had been
accustomed to observe in those to whom he gave himself. Potts was at
length speaking of him as an ungrateful black hound, and wondering if
the nation might not have been injudicious in liberating the slave.

Clem, for his part, cut the Colonel dead on Main Street one day and
never afterwards betrayed to him any consciousness of his existence. It
was said that their final disagreement hinged upon a matter of thirty
odd dollars earned by Clem in a Cincinnati restaurant and confided later
to the Colonel's too thorough keeping.

Be as it may, Clem had formed other and more profitable connections.
From a doer of odd jobs of wood-sawing, house-cleaning, and
stove-polishing he had risen to the dignity of a market gardener. A
small house and a large garden a block away from my place were now
rented by him. Also he caught fish, snared rabbits, gathered the wild
fruits in their seasons, and was janitor of the Methodist church; all
this in addition to looking after my own home. It was not surprising
that he had money in the bank. He worked unceasingly. The earliest
risers in Little Arcady found him already busied, and those abroad
latest at night would see or hear him about the little unpainted house
in the big garden.

I suspect he had come out into the strange world of the North with
large, loose notions that the fortune he needed might be speedily
amassed. Such tales had been told him in his Southland, where he had not
learned to question or doubt. If so, his disappointment was not to be
seen in his bearing. That look of patient endurance may have eaten a
little deeper the lines about his inky eyes, but I am sure his purpose
had never wavered, nor his faith that he would win at last.

As I ate my breakfast that morning he told me of his good year. The
early produce of his garden had sold well. S