aught site uv me. "Taste that, Parson," sed
he, holdin out a tin dipper full. I drank it off, and one look at him
onmand me. "Kin I o'ercloud that smilin cheek?" thot I, ez, in a fit uv
absent-mindednis,--wich I hev every now and then,--I held out the empty
dipper to be filled agin, wich it wuz. "No! for a time he shel be
spared;" and I borrered his mule, and rode away pensively.

I wuz goin fust to Deekin Pogram's, for he wuz the most interested uv
eny in the settlement. After the meetin mentioned above, the Deekin hed
caused the arrest uv sich niggers ez he cood ketch, and had had em fined
in sums uv $275 and uppards, wich bein unable, ez a rool, to pay the
fine, he hed kindly bid em in.

He hed picked up, here and there, all uv his old servants, ceptin those
wich hed bin killed in the army, and the few misguided ones wich hed
made their way North, and that mornin the plantashen wuz to be
reconstructed upon the old patriarkle system. Mrs. Deekin Pogram wuz
marshellin four uv the likeliest wenches I ever saw in the kitchen; his
son Tom wuz chuckin a yaller girl under the chin, wich hed bin born on
the place about eighteen years before, and wich, owin to a unfortunate
resemblance to the Deekin, bed caused a onpleasantnis between him and
his wife, wich endid in the loss uv the most uv his hair, and the sellin
uv the girl's mother to Noo Orleans. The two girls hed each their
waitin-maids, and wuz a puttin them through their paces. There hed bin
some trouble in gittin em reconstructed, it bein deemed nessary to take
the conseet out uv em, wich they wuz all a doin. Ez I rode up, the old
lady bed jest knocked one uv em down with a fire-shovel, and wuz dancin
a Highland fling onto her prostrate body. Almira, the oldest gal, hed
her fingers in the wool uv her gal; and tother one wuz a thumpin hern to
redose her to her proper level; and the Deekin hisself wuz a deelin with
one ongrateful wretch, who objected to bein put to work on them terms,
not realizin that the Bureau was gone. Ez the Deekin hed a revolver he
yielded the pint, and submitted to be flogged, wich the Deekin wuz doin
ez neatly ez I ever saw, considerin he hed bin out uv practis four
years. He had him tied up to a tree, and wuz a wollopin uv him gorjus.
While he wuz a convinsin uv him with his whip that there wuz trooth in
the Skripter, and that Ham wuz reely a servant unto his bretherin, I
exclaimed, "Stop!" and immejitly whispered the appallin news in his left