ntil you
came. May I buy him?"

"Certainly, Phil. Here, boy!"

The colonel threw the black boy a silver dollar. Phil took the dog
under his arm and followed his father into the house, while the other
boy, his glistening eyes glued to the coin in his hand, scampered off
as fast as his limbs would carry him. He was back next morning with a
pretty white kitten, but the colonel discouraged any further purchases
for the time being.

* * * * *

"My dear Laura," said the colonel when he saw his friend the same
evening, "I have been in Clarendon two days; and I have already bought
a dog, a house and a man."

Miss Laura was startled. "I don't understand," she said.

The colonel proceeded to explain the transaction by which he had
acquired, for life, the services of old Peter.

"I suppose it is the law," Miss Laura said, "but it seems hardly
right. I had thought we were well rid of slavery. White men do not
work any too much. Old Peter was not idle. He did odd jobs, when he
could get them; he was polite and respectful; and it was an outrage to
treat him so. I am glad you--hired him."

"Yes--hired him. Moreover, Laura. I have bought a house."

"A house! Then you are going to stay! I am so glad! we shall all be so
glad. What house?"

"The old place. I went into the barber shop. The barber complimented
me on the family taste in architecture, and grew sentimental about
_his_ associations with the house. This awoke _my_ associations, and
the collocation jarred--I was selfish enough to want a monopoly of the
associations. I bought the house from him before I left the shop."

"But what will you do with it?" asked Miss Laura, puzzled. "You could
never _live_ in it again--after a coloured family?"

"Why not? It is no less the old house because the barber has reared
his brood beneath its roof. There were always Negroes in it when we
were there--the place swarmed with them. Hammer and plane, soap and
water, paper and paint, can make it new again. The barber, I
understand, is a worthy man, and has reared a decent family. His
daughter plays the piano, and sings:

_'I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls,
With vassals and serfs by my side.'_

I heard her as I passed there yesterday."

Miss Laura gave an apprehensive start.

"There were Negroes in the house in the old days," he went on
unnoticing, "and surely a good old house, gone farther astray than
ours, might still be redeemed