nooze it off. Bein' awaked before my nod was out, I felt
evil an' chiveyish, and the tavern blokes, an' the nigger, an' the
feller with the steeple shap, all clecked me at once."

"Well, Joe, for Aunt Patty's sake, I'll take care of you. Go to the
kitchen door, and I'll step through the house and tell our Aunt Hominy
to give you supper and breakfast, and a place to get some sleep. But you
must keep out of the way, and slip off quietly on Sunday, for we have
had a wedding in the family to-day, Joe, and though I cannot understand
your peculiar slang, I suspect the bridegroom to be the man who knocked
the breath out of you with the stone."

The stranger lifted his hand from his bloody eye again, and counted the
red drops splashing down from his beard. Judge Custis marked his scowl.

"Tut, tut!" said the Judge, "you will never get your revenge out of that
man. He is too strong. I don't wonder that he disabled you, and don't
you ever get into his clutches, Joe; for if he knows you are here, I
shall be forced to send you to jail this very night. Keep out of the
hands of Meshach Milburn! He has knocked the breath out of you, Mr.
Johnson, but there are some whose hearts he has twisted out of their
bodies."

"I'll meet him somewhere," Joe Johnson muttered, "but not in Princess
Anne;" and he pulled down his slouched hat to cover his eyes, and
stalked away to find the kitchen.

"Oh, what a day can bring forth," Judge Custis thought, raising his
hands to the October stars: "Meshach of the ominous hat the host in my
parlor: Joe Johnson, the son-in-law of Patty Cannon, the guest of my
kitchen!"

CHAPTER XIV.

MESHACH'S HOME.

Vesta had slept she hardly knew how long, but it was day, and slowly her
eyes turned towards the remainder of her bed to see if it was occupied.

The bridegroom was not there.

She reached her foot into her slipper at the bedside, and at one swift
step passed before her mirror, whispering:

"I have dreamed it all!"

The fresh, flushing skin, and radiant contrasts of hair and eyes seemed
so welcome to her in their perfect assurance of health, that she
whispered again:

"Have I dreamed it? He is not here. Oh, am I free?"

Then a feeling of reproval came to her as the minutest memory of that
wonderful yesterday rose to her mind, and the vow she had made to honor
and obey seemed to have been too easily repented. She looked upon her
hand, and the little, thin, pathetic thread of gold reaffir