aid to me, 'Andy, chile, ye orter larn to read, 'twill be
ob use to ye when you'se grow'd up, and it moight make you a good and
'spected man--now, come to ole Pomp's cabin, and he'll larn you, Andy,
chile.' Wal, I reckon I went. He'd nothin' but a Bible and Watts' Hymns;
but we used to stay thar all the long winter evenin's, and by the light
o' the fire--we war both so darned pore we couldn't raise a candle
atween us--wal, by the light o' the fire he larned me, and fore long I
could spell right smart.

"Now, jest think on that, gentlemen. I, a white boy, and, 'cordin' to
the Declaration of Independence, with jest as good blood in me as the
old Cunnel had in him, bein' larned to read by an old slave, and that
old slave a'most worked to death, and takin' his nights, when he orter
hev been a restin' his old bones, to larn me! I'm d----d if he don't
get to heaven for that one thing, if for nothin' else.

"Wal, you all know the rest--how, when I'd grow'd up, I settled har, in
the old North State, and how the young Cunnel backed my paper, and set
me a runnin' at turpentining. P'raps you don't think this has much to do
with the Yankees, but it has a durned sight, as ye'll see rather sudden.
Wal, arter a while, when I'd got a little forehanded, I begun shipping
my truck to York and Bostin'; and at last my Yankee factor, he come out
har, inter the back woods, to see me, and says he, 'Jones, come North
and take a look at us.' I'd sort o' took to him. I'd lots o' dealin's
with him afore ever I seed him, and I allers found him straight as a
shingle. Wal, I went North, and he took me round, and showed me how the
Yankees does things. Afore I know'd him, I allers thought--as p'raps
most on you do--that the Yankees war a sort o' cross atween the devil
and a Jew; but how do you s'pose I found 'em? I found that they _sent
the pore man's children to schule_, FREE--and that the schule-houses war
a d----d sight thicker than the bugs in Miles Privett's beds! and
that's sayin' a heap, for ef eny on you kin sleep in his house, excep'
he takes to the soft side of the floor, I'm d----d. Yas, the pore man's
children are larned thar, FREE!--all on 'em--and they've jest so good a
chance as the sons of the rich man! Now, arter that, do you think that
I--as got all my schulein, from an old slave, by the light of a borrored
pine-knot--der you think that _I_ kin say any thing agin the Yankees?
P'r'aps they _do_ steal--though I doant know it--p'r'aps th