I will give you an
instance of the variety of his possessions.

I wanted some sealing-wax to mend a broken chess-piece, having by some
strange carelessness left the box containing mine in Marysville. I
inquired everywhere for it, but always got laughed at for supposing
that any one would be so absurd as to bring such an article into the
mountains. As a forlorn hope, I applied to Yank. Of course he had
plenty! The best of it is, that, whenever he produces any of these
out-of-the-way things, he always says that he brought them from the
States, which proves that he had a remarkable degree of foresight when
he left his home three years ago.

While I sat chatting with Yank I heard some one singing loudly, and
apparently very gayly, a negro melody, and, the next moment, who should
enter but Little John, who had been whipped, according to sentence,
three hours previously. As soon as he saw me he burst into tears, and
exclaimed,--

"Oh! Mrs. ----, a heartless mob has beaten me cruelly, has taken all my
money from me, and has decreed that I, who am an innocent man, should
leave the mountains without a cent of money to assist me on my way!"

The latter part of his speech, as I afterwards discovered, was
_certainly_ a lie, for he knew that a sum amply sufficient to pay his
expenses to Marysville had been subscribed by the very people who
believed him guilty. Of course his complaints were extremely painful to
me. You know how weakly pitiful I always am towards wicked people; for
it seems to me that they are so much more to be compassionated than the
good.

But what _could_ I say to poor John? I did not for one moment doubt his
entire guilt, and so, as people often do on such occasions, I took
refuge in a platitude.

"Well, John," I sagely remarked, "I hope that you did not take the
money. And only think how much happier you are in that case, than if
you had been beaten and abused as you say you have, and at the same
time were a criminal!"

I must confess, much as it tells against my eloquence, that John did
not receive my well-meant attempt at consolation with that pious
gratitude which such an injured innocent ought to have exhibited, but,
F. luckily calling me at that moment, I was spared any more of his
tearful complaints.

Soon after our return to the cabin, John's lawyer and the Squire called
upon us. They declared their perfect conviction of his innocence, and
the latter remarked that if any one would accompany hi