ble, but de folks round har wud hab turned on de Cunnel, shore, ef
he'd killed him. Dey don't like de Cunnel; dey say he'm a stuck-up
seshener."

"The Colonel, then, has befriended you at some time?"

"No, no, sar; 'twarn't dat; dough I'se know'd him a long w'ile--eber
sense my ole massa fotched me from Habana--but 'twarn't dat."

"Then _why_ did you do it?"

The black hesitated a moment, and glanced at the old negress, then said:

"You see, massa, w'en I fuss come to Charles'n, a pore little ting, wid
no friend in all de worle, dis ole aunty war a mudder to me. She nussed
de Cunnel; he am jess like her own chile, and I know'd 'twud kill her ef
he got hissef enter trubble."

I noticed certain convulsive twitchings about the corners of the old
woman's mouth as she rose from her seat, threw her arms around Scip,
and, in words broken by sobs, faltered out:

"_You_ am my chile; I loves you better dan Massa Davy--better dan all de
worle."

The scene, had they not been black, would have been one for a painter.

"You were the Colonel's nurse, Aunty," I said, when she had regained her
composure. "Have you always lived with him?"

"Yas, sar, allers; I nussed him, and den de chil'ren--all ob 'em."

"_All_ the children? I thought the Colonel had but one--Miss Clara."

"Wal, he habn't, massa, only de boys."

"What boys? I never heard he had sons."

"Neber heerd of young Massa Davy, nor Massa Tommy! Haint you _seed_
Massa Tommy, sar?"

"Tommy! I was told he was Madam P----'s son."

"So he am; Massa Davy had _her_ long afore he had missus."

The truth flashed upon me; but could it be possible? Was I in South
Carolina or in Utah?

"Who _is_ Madam P----?" I asked.

The old woman hesitated a moment as if in doubt whether she had not said
too much; but Scip quietly replied:

"She'm jess what aunty am--_de Cunnel's slave!_"

"His _slave!_ it can't be possible; she is white!"

"No, massa; she am brack, and de Cunnel's slave!"

Not to weary the reader with a long repetition of negro-English, I will
tell in brief what I gleaned from an hour's conversation with the two
blacks.

Madam P---- was the daughter of Ex-Gov. ----, of Virginia, by a quarteron
woman. She was born a slave, but was acknowledged as her father's child,
and reared in his family with his legitimate children. When she was ten
years old her father died, and his estate proving insolvent, the land
and negroes were brought under the hammer. His daugh