and the clostest
shooting rifle I ever tossed to my shoulder." He seemed but small to
have accomplished such a feat. He meditated for a little space. "I
reckon when we strike the settlements again I should like to buy my
Uncle Bob a present." With knitted brows he considered what this should
be, canvassing Yancy's needs. He had about decided on a ring such as
Captain Murrell was wearing, when he heard the shuffling of bare feet
over the ground and a voice spoke out of the darkness.

"When yo' get to feelin' like sleep, young boss, Mas'r Slosson he says I
show yo' to yo' chamber." It was Slosson's boy Eph.

"Did you-all happen to notice what they're doing in the tavern now?"
asked Hannibal.

"I low they're makin' a regular hog-killin' of it," said Eph smartly.
Hannibal descended from the fence.

"Yes, you can show me my chamber," he said, and his tone was severe.
What a white man did was not a matter for a black man to criticize. They
went toward the open door of the tavern. Mr. Slosson's corn whisky had
already wrought a marked transformation in the case of Slosson himself.
His usually terse speech was becoming diffuse and irrelevant, while
vacant laughter issued from his lips. Yancy was apparently unaffected
by the good cheer of which he had partaken, but Murrell's dark face
was flushed. The Scratch Hiller's ability to carry his liquor exceeded
anything he had anticipated.

"You-all run along to bed, Nevvy," said Yancy, as Hannibal entered the
room. "I'll mighty soon follow you."

Eph secured a tin candle-stick with a half-burnt candle in it and led
the way into the passage back of the bar.

"Mas'r Slosson's jus' mo' than layin' back!" he said, as he closed the
door after them.

"I reckon you-all will lay back, too, when you get growed up," retorted
Hannibal.

"No, sir, I won't. White folks won't let a nigger lay back. Onliest time
a nigger sees co'n whisky's when he's totin' it fo' some one else."

"I reckon a nigger's fool enough without corn whisky," said Hannibal.
They mounted a flight of stairs and passed down a narrow hall. This
brought them to the back of the building, and Eph pushed open the door
on his right.

"This heah's yo' chamber," he said, and preceding his companion into the
room, placed the candle on a chair.

"Well--I low I clean forgot something!" cried Hannibal.

"If it's yo' bundle and yo' gun, I done fotched 'em up heah and laid 'em
on yo' bed," said Eph, preparing' to withdraw.