eets. Even the cows in the vacant lot between the post-office and
the bank occasionally lifted up their gentle eyes as though wondering
what strange fever possessed the two-legged creatures around them,
urging them to such unnatural activity.

The work went on smoothly for a week or two, when the colonel had some
words with Jim Green, the white foreman of the masons. The cause of
the dispute was not important, but the colonel, as the master,
insisted that certain work should be done in a certain way. Green
wished to argue the point. The colonel brought the discussion to a
close with a peremptory command. The foreman took offense, declared
that he was no nigger to be ordered around, and quit. The colonel
promoted to the vacancy George Brown, a coloured man, who was the next
best workman in the gang.

On the day when Brown took charge of the job the white bricklayers, of
whom there were two at work, laid down their tools.

"What's the matter?" asked the colonel, when they reported for their
pay. "Aren't you satisfied with the wages?"

"Yes, we've got no fault to find with the wages."

"Well?"

"We won't work under George Brown. We don't mind working _with_
niggers, but we won't work _under_ a nigger."

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I must hire my own men. Here is your
money."

They would have preferred to argue their grievance, and since the
colonel had shut off discussion they went down to Clay Jackson's
saloon and argued the case with all comers, with the usual distortion
attending one-sided argument. Jim Green had been superseded by a
nigger--this was the burden of their grievance.

Thus came the thin entering wedge that was to separate the colonel
from a measure of his popularity. There had been no objection to the
colonel's employing Negroes, no objection to his helping their
school--if he chose to waste his money that way; but there were many
who took offense when a Negro was preferred to a white man.

Through Caxton the colonel learned of this criticism. The colonel
showed no surprise, and no annoyance, but in his usual good-humoured
way replied:

"We'll go right along and pay no attention to him. There were only two
white men in the gang, and they have never worked under the Negro;
they quit as soon as I promoted him. I have hired many men in my time
and have made it an unvarying rule to manage my own business in my own
way. If anybody says anything to you about it, you tell them just
that. These peopl