h in Cap'n Kenton; ef he's got any tender
feelin's in him, dey's all fur us white folks. Flint, sir, flint, lead,
an' steel is all he has fur de red rubbish."

"But mother says it is wrong for white men to take scalps," observed
Bushie.

Whereat the Fighting Negro was somewhat taken aback, and for a full
minute quite at a loss for an answer which would justify himself and
Captain Kenton in their practice of taking scalps, and yet not gainsay
Miss Jemima's disapprobation of the same. But after taking a bird's-eye
view of the landscape before him, and with it a bird's-eye view of the
subject, he was his collected self again. He began his answer by
observing, in a general way, that Miss Jemima doubtless meant that the
practice in question was wrong so far only as it concerned the duties
and obligations of husbands and fathers, without intending her stricture
to apply to bachelors, like himself and Captain Kenton. Having thus
skillfully accommodated both sides of the matter in dispute, the
Fighting Negro, with a persuasive gesture, wound up his vindication
thus: "So, you see, Bushrod, Jemimy Rennuls wus right, an' Burlman
Rennuls wus right. Dare's reason in all things. Now, when you grows up
an' gits to be a married man, den comes I to you an' says, 'Cap'n
Rennuls;' dat'll be you, you know, Bushie; 'Cap'n Rennuls,' says I,
'you's a married man now, got a wife, gwine to be a man of fam'ly, den
it won't do fur you to take skelps. Jes' leab dat part uf de business to
de bucks dat hain't got no do's, like me an' Cap'n Kenton. I say, Cap'n
Rennuls, don't you take no skelps, yo' wife won't like it.'" And the
Fighting Negro triumphantly crossed his legs. A delicate and difficult
question had been settled, and to the entire satisfaction of at least
one party concerned.

Now, between these two personages of our story, so widely different from
each other in size, age, color, and condition, there existed, as
doubtless has already been discovered, a sort of mutual-admiration
understanding, which always kept them on the best of terms one with
another, no matter how roughly they might be at rubs with the rest of
the world: the black giant making a household idol, so to speak, of his
little master; the little master a pattern, so to speak, of the black
giant. So, when the pattern crossed his legs, the idol needs must cross
his legs likewise. But in the act, the rail on which he was sitting,
giving a sudden turn, marred the new attitude