it would
be uncandid to pretend, even at this late day, that I have ever divined
the precise relationship that exists between Miss Caroline and her
slave. I may know a bit more of its intricacies than does Little Arcady
at large, but not enough to permit that certain thrill of superior
discernment which I have so often been able to enjoy in Slocum County.

Each of the two, considered alone, is fairly comprehensible. But taken
together, there is something between them which must always baffle
me--something which I cannot believe to have been at all typical of the
relation between owner and slave, else many of the facts noted by our
discerning and impartial investigators were either imperfectly observed
or unintelligently reported.

Up to a certain point my own studies of this slave-holder aligned
perfectly with the information which we of the North had been at such
pains to gather. And I tried to hold Miss Caroline blameless,
remembering that she had been long schooled to the inhumanity of it.

I resolved, nevertheless, to take Clem under my own roof--there was a
small unused room almost directly under it--the moment Miss Caroline's
impatience with him should move her to the extremes foretold by her
abusive fashion of speech. I would not see even a negro turned out in
the coldest of winters for no better reason than that he was sick and
useless, though I planned to intervene delicately, so as not to affront
my neighbor. For my heart was still hers, despite this hardness, for
which I saw that she must not be blamed.

As I had feared, Clem's cough became more obtrusive, and with this Miss
Caroline's irritation deepened toward him. She declared that his
trifling, no-account nature made him all but impossible.

Then one morning--one to be distinguished by its cold even among many
unusual mornings--there was no Clem to light my fires and to scent my
snug dining room with unparalleled coffee. This brought it definitely
home to me that the situation had become grave. I dressed with what
speed I could and hurried to Miss Caroline's door. The time had come
when I should probably have to do something.

My neighbor met me and said that Clem had meanly decided to remain in
bed for the day. I searched her face for some sign of consideration as
she said this, but I was disappointed. She seemed to feel only a fierce
disgust for his foolishness.

"But you may go up and look at the black good-for-nothing if you like,"
she said, g