had done her. But Jake was there, and the
child looking on with wide-open eyes, and though she did not understand
what was said she knew that Jake was crying, and charged it to the
stranger--"the bad man, to make Shaky cry--I hates 'oo," she said,
beginning to strike at him.

"Hush! honey, hush!" Jake said, while the Colonel began to feel the need
of several hot-water bags as he went back to the house where Mandy Ann,
remembering the hospitable ways at Miss Perkins's when people called,
had set out for him the best the house afforded, including the china
plate he remembered so well.

He felt that to eat would choke him, but forced himself to take a sip of
coffee and a bit of corn bread. The little girl had remained behind in
her play-house, and he was glad of that. She was a restraint upon him.
He wanted to talk business, and he did not know how much she would
understand. When her great bright eyes were on him he felt nervous as if
she were reading his thoughts, and was more himself with her away. He
must talk about her and her going with him on the "Hatty," and Jake
listened with a swelling heart, and Mandy Ann with her apron over her
head to hide her tears. They knew it must be, and tried to suppress
their feelings.

"It's like takin' my life," Jake said, "but it's for de best. Miss Dory
would say so, but, Mas'r Crompton, you'll fotch her back sometime to de
ole place. You'll tell her of her mudder, an' me, an' Mandy Ann. You
won't let her done forget."

Nothing could be further from the Colonel's intentions than to let the
child come back, and everything he could do to make her forget was to be
done, but he could not say so to Jake, and with some evasive answer he
hurried on to business, and spoke of the house and clearing, which now
by right of inheritance belonged to the child. As he assumed her
guardianship he should also assume an oversight of her property, and it
was his wish that Jake should stay on the place, receiving a certain sum
yearly for his services, and having all he could make besides. For
anything of his own which he had spent on the clearing he was to be
repaid, and all the money Eudora had put by was to be his. Jake felt
like a millionaire, and expressed his thanks with choking sobs. Then,
glancing at Mandy Ann, he asked as he had asked before, "An' what 'bout
Mandy Ann? I 'longs to myself, but who's she 'long to, now ole Miss an'
young Miss is dead?"

"Yes, who's nigger be I? Whar am I gwine