, bery bad, but he won't be so no more."

"Stop your noise, aunty," said the Colonel, but with no harshness in his
tone. "I shall do what I think right."

"Send for him, David," said Madame P----; "let us hear what he has to
say. He would not come back if he meant to be ugly."

"_Send_ for him, Alice!" replied my host. "He's prouder than Lucifer,
and would send me word to come to _him_. I will go. Will you accompany
me, Mr. K----? You'll hear what a runaway nigger thinks of slavery: Sam
has the gift of speech, and uses it regardless of persons."

"Yes, sir, I'll go with pleasure."

It was about an hour after nightfall when we emerged from the door of
the mansion and took our way to the negro quarters. The full moon had
risen half way above the horizon, and the dark pines cast their shadows
around the little collection of negro huts, which straggled about
through the woods for the distance of a third of a mile. It was dark,
but I could distinguish the figure of a man striding along at a rapid
pace a few hundred yards in advance of us.

"Is'nt that Moye?" I asked the Colonel, directing his attention to the
receding figure.

"I reckon so; that's his gait. He's had a lesson to-day that'll do him
good."

"I don't like that man's looks," I replied, carelessly; "but I've heard
of singed cats."

"He _is_ a sneaking d--l," said the Colonel; "but he's very valuable to
me. I never had an overseer who got so much work out of the hands."

"Is he severe with them?"

"Well, I reckon he is; but a nigger is like a dog--you must flog him to
make him like you."

"I judge your niggers haven't been flogged into liking Moye."

"Why, have you heard any of them speak of him?"

"Yes; though, of course, I've made no effort to draw gossip from them. I
had to hear."

"O yes; I know; there's no end to their gabble; niggers will talk. But
what have you heard?"

"That Moye is to blame in this affair of Sam, and that you don't know
the whole story."

"What _is_ the whole story?" he asked, stopping short in the road; "tell
me before I see Sam."

I then told him what Jim had recounted to me. He heard me through
attentively, then laughingly exclaimed:

"Is that all! Lord bless you, he didn't seduce her. There's no seducing
these women; with them it's a thing of course. It was Sam's d-- high
blood that made the trouble. His father was the proudest man in
Virginia, and Sam is as like him as a nigger can be like a white man."

"No