o: he invented a machine for
the cleaning of hemp--a really valuable affair; it's gone into use in
several factories. His master holds the patent of it."

"I'll warrant ye," said the drover, "holds it and makes money out of it,
and then turns round and brands the boy in his right hand. If I had a
fair chance, I'd mark him, I reckon so that he'd carry it _one_ while."

"These yer knowin' boys is allers aggravatin' and sarcy," said a
coarse-looking fellow, from the other side of the room; "that's why they
gets cut up and marked so. If they behaved themselves, they wouldn't."

"That is to say, the Lord made 'em men, and it's a hard squeeze gettin
'em down into beasts," said the drover, dryly.

"Bright niggers isn't no kind of 'vantage to their masters," continued
the other, well entrenched, in a coarse, unconscious obtuseness, from
the contempt of his opponent; "what's the use o' talents and them
things, if you can't get the use on 'em yourself? Why, all the use they
make on 't is to get round you. I've had one or two of these fellers,
and I jest sold 'em down river. I knew I'd got to lose 'em, first or
last, if I didn't."

"Better send orders up to the Lord, to make you a set, and leave out
their souls entirely," said the drover.

Here the conversation was interrupted by the approach of a small
one-horse buggy to the inn. It had a genteel appearance, and a
well-dressed, gentlemanly man sat on the seat, with a colored servant
driving.

The whole party examined the new comer with the interest with which a
set of loafers in a rainy day usually examine every newcomer. He was
very tall, with a dark, Spanish complexion, fine, expressive black eyes,
and close-curling hair, also of a glossy blackness. His well-formed
aquiline nose, straight thin lips, and the admirable contour of his
finely-formed limbs, impressed the whole company instantly with the idea
of something uncommon. He walked easily in among the company, and with
a nod indicated to his waiter where to place his trunk, bowed to the
company, and, with his hat in his hand, walked up leisurely to the bar,
and gave in his name as Henry Butter, Oaklands, Shelby County. Turning,
with an indifferent air, he sauntered up to the advertisement, and read
it over.

"Jim," he said to his man, "seems to me we met a boy something like
this, up at Beman's, didn't we?"

"Yes, Mas'r," said Jim, "only I an't sure about the hand."

"Well, I didn't look, of course," said the st