ck by me to the
last. He has had no intention to free _me_, whatever may have been my
plans for himself and his race.

I never had more than one conversation with either Neb or his wife, on the
subject of wages, and then I discovered how tender a thing it was, with
the fellow, to place him on a level with the other hired people of my farm
and household.

"I won'er what I done, Masser Mile, dat you want to pay me wages, like a
hired man!" said Neb, half-disposed to resent, and half-disposed to grieve
at the proposal. "I was born in de family, and it seem to me dat quite
enough; but, if dat isn't enough, I went to sea wid you, Masser Mile, de
fuss day you go, and I go ebbery time since."

These words, uttered a little reproachfully, disposed of the matter. From
that hour to this, the subject of wages has never been broached between
us. When Neb wants clothes he goes and gets them, and they are charged to
"Masser Mile;" when he wants money he comes and gets it, never manifesting
the least shame or reluctance, but asking for all he has need of, like a
man. Chloe does the same with Lucy, whom she regards, in addition to her
having the honour to be my wife, as a sort of substitute for "Miss Grace."
With this honest couple, Mr. and Mrs. Miles Wallingford, of Clawbonny, and
Riversedge; and Union Place, are still nothing but "Masser Mile" and "Miss
Lucy;"--and I once saw an English traveller take out her note-book, and
write something very funny, I dare say, when she heard Chloe thus address
the mother of three fine children, who were hanging around her knee, and
calling her by that, the most endearing of all appellations. Chloe was
indifferent to the note of the traveller, however, still calling her
mistress "Miss Lucy," though the last is now a grandmother.

As for the children of the house of Nebuchadnezzar, truth compels me to
say, that they have been largely influenced by the spirit of the age, and
that they look on the relation that existed for more than a century,
between the Wallingfords and the Clawbonnys, with eyes somewhat different
from those of their parents. They have begun to migrate; and I am not
sorry to see them go. Notwithstanding, the tie will not be wholly broken,
so long as any of the older stock remain, tradition leaving many of its
traces among them. Not one has ever left my rule without my consent; and I
have procured places for them all, as ambition, or curiosity, has carried
them into the world.