so bery bad, arter all? Don't you tink He'll gib Sam a house?
P'r'aps' 'twont be one ob de fine hous'n, but wont it be a comfible
house, dat hain't no cracks, and one dat'll keep out de wind and de
rain? And don't you s'pose, my chil'ren, dat it'll be big 'nuff for
Jule, too--dat pore, repentin' chile, whose heart am clean broke, 'ca'se
she hab broughten dis on Sam--and won't de Lord--de good Lord--de
tender-hearted Lord--won't He touch Sam's heart, and coax him to forgib
Jule, and to take her inter his house up dar? I knows he will, my
chil'ren. I knows----"

The old negro paused abruptly; there was a quick swaying in the black
crowd--a hasty rush--a wild cry--and Sam's wife burst into the open
space around the preacher, and fell at his feet. Throwing her arms
wildly about him, she shrieked out:

"Say dat agin, Uncle Pomp! for de lub ob de good Lord, oh! say dat
agin!"

Bending down, the old man raised her gently in his arms, and folding her
there, as he would have folded a child, he said, in a voice thick with
emotion:

"It am so, Juley. I knows dat Sam will forgib you, and take you wid him
up dar."

Fastening her arms frantically around Pompey's neck, the poor woman
burst into a paroxysm of grief, while the old man's tears fell in great
drops on her upturned face, and many a dark cheek was wet, as with rain.

The scene had lasted a few minutes, and I was turning away to hide the
emotion that fast filled my eyes, and was creeping up, with a choking
feeling, to my throat, when the Colonel, from the farther edge of the
group, called out:

"Take that d---- d---- away--take her away, Pomp!"

The old negro turned toward his master with a sad, grieved look, but
gave no heed to the words.

"Take her away, some of you, I say," again cried the Colonel. "Pomp, you
mustn't keep these niggers all night in the cold."

At the sound of her master's voice the metif woman fell to the ground as
if struck by a Minie-ball. Soon several negroes lifted her up to bear
her off; but she struggled violently, and rent the woods with her wild
cries for "one more look at Sam."

"Look at him, you d---- d----; then go, and don't let me see you again."

She threw herself on the face of the dead, and covered the cold lips
with her kisses; then she rose, and with a weak, uncertain step,
staggered out into the darkness.

Was not the system which had so seared and hardened that man's heart,
begotten in the lowest hell?

The old preach