he dog was of a dark hazel-color--a cross between a setter and a
gray-hound--and one of the most beautiful creatures I ever saw. Her neck
and breast were bound about with a coarse cotton cloth, saturated with
blood, and emitting a strong odor of bad whisky; and her whole
appearance showed the desperate nature of the encounter with the
overseer.

The nine young democrats who were lolling about the room in various
attitudes rose as we entered, and with a familiar but rather deferential
'Howdy'ge,' to the Colonel, huddled around and stared at me with open
mouths and distended eyes, as if I were a strange being dropped from
some other sphere. The two eldest were of the male gender, as was shown
by their clothes--cast-off suits of the inevitable reddish-gray--much
too large, and out at the elbows and the knees; but the sex of the
others I was at a loss to determine, for they wore only a single robe,
reaching, like their mother's, from the neck to the knees. Not one of
the occupants of the cabin boasted a pair of stockings, but the father
and mother did enjoy the luxury of shoes--coarse, stout brogans,
untanned, and of the color of the legs which they encased.

'Well, Sandy, how is Lady?' asked the Colonel, as he stepped to the bed
of the wounded dog.

'Reckon she's a goner, Cunnel; the d----d Yankee orter swing fur it.'

This intimation that the overseer was a 'countryman' of mine, took me by
surprise, nothing I had observed in his speech or manners having
indicated it, but I consoled myself with the reflection that Connecticut
had reared him--as she makes wooden hams and nutmegs--expressly for the
Southern market.'

'He _shall_ swing for it, by ----. But are you sure the dog will die?'

'Not shore, Cunnel, but she can't stand, and the blood _will_ run. I
reckon a hun'red and fifty ar done for thar, sartin.'

'D---- the money--I'll make that right. Go to the house and get some
ointment from Madam--she can save her--go at once,' said my host.

'I will, Cunnel,' replied the dirt-eater, taking his broad-brim from the
wooden peg where it was reposing, and leisurely leaving the cabin.
Making our way over the piles of rubbish and crowds of children that
cumbered the apartment, the Colonel and I then returned to the carriage.

'Dogs must be rare in this region,' I remarked, as we resumed our
seats.

'Yes, well-trained bloodhounds are scarce every where. That dog is well
worth a hundred and fifty dollars.'

'The busines