edom,' I answered him, 'and always
said so.'

"'Then why didn't he give it to you before, instead of requiring me to
make such a sacrifice? Come, come, Pomp!' he patted my shoulder; 'you
are altogether too valuable a nigger to throw away. Why, people say you
know almost as much about medicine as my brother did. You'll be an
invaluable fellow to have on a plantation; you can doctor the field
hands, and, may be, if you behave yourself, get a chance to prescribe
for the family. Come, my boy, you musn't get foolish ideas of freedom
into your head; they're what spoil a nigger, and they'll have to be
whipped out of you, which would be too bad for a fine, handsome darkey
like you.'

"He patted my shoulder again, and looked as pleasant and flattering as
if I had been a child to be coaxed,--I, as much a man, every bit, as
he!" said Pomp, with a gleam of pride. "I could have torn him like a
tiger for his insolence, his heartless injustice. But I repressed
myself; I knew nothing was to be gained by violence.

"'Master,' said I, 'what you say is no doubt very flattering. But I want
what my master gave me--what you promised that I should have--I shall be
contented with nothing else.'

"'What! you persist?' he said, kindling up. 'Let me tell you now, Pomp,
once for all, you'll have to be contented with a good deal less; and
never mention the word "freedom" to me again if you would keep that
precious hide of yours whole!'

"I saw he meant it, and that there was no help for me. Despair and fury
were in me. Then, for the only time in my life, I felt what it was to
wish to murder a man. I could have smitten the life out of that smiling,
handsome face of his! Thank God I was kept from that. I concealed what
was burning within. Then first I learned to pray,--I learned to trust in
God. And so better thoughts came to me; and I said, 'If he uses me well,
I will serve him; if not, I will run for my life.'

"Well, he brought me here to Tennessee. Here he was managing his aunt's
estate, which she, soon dying, bequeathed to him. Up to this time I had
got on very well; but he never liked me; he often said I knew too much,
and was too proud. He was determined to humiliate me; so one day he said
to me, 'Pomp, that Nance has been acting ugly of late, and you permit
her.' I was a sort of overseer, you see. 'Now I'll tell you what I am
going to have done. Nance is going to be whipped, and you are the fellow
that's going to whip her.'

"'Pardon