ll I take him, Doctor Gibbons?" asked a fine-looking, easy-mannered
man, of the magistrate.

"Yes, Mr. Clayton."

"Do you know the nature of an oath? What is it?"

"I'll be fried like a slapper on the devil's griddle ef I don't tell
right," whined Cy James, zealously.

"No you won't; at least, not _first_. If you don't tell me the truth
I'll have your two ears cut off on the pillory, and no slapper shall
enter that hungry stomach of yours for a month. Goy!"

He looked at Cy James as if he had a mind to bite his nose off as a mere
beginning.

"Now, Hollyday Hicks, you and Billy Hooper and the other constables take
away this box, which smells too loud here, as soon as the witness has
sworn to it. When did you last see this box, James?"

"About ten year ago, sir, when I had been bound to Patty Cannon four
year, I reckon, I see Patty an' Joe Johnson an' Ebenezer, his brother,
all toting this chist to the field an' a-buryin' of it."[8]

"What did you see them put in that chest?"

"A dead man--a nigger-trader. I can't tell whether his name was Bell or
Miller; she killed two men nigh that time, an' I was so little that I've
got 'em mixed."

"Did you see her kill this man?"

"No, sir, I wasn't home. I got home in time to see 'em packin' him in
the box. I hearn Patty tell the boys how she killed him. Oh! she was
proud of it, sir, becaze she didn't have no help in it."

Half a dozen heads of constables, some of whom Hulda knew, leaned
forward together to hear the witness, while others removed the unsavory
remains. Mr. Clayton continued:

"How did she say she killed him?"

"She said he come to Joe's tavern with a borreyed hoss from East New
Market, where he told the people he was buyin' niggers, and would take
fifteen thousand dollars wuth if he could git 'em. He was follered out,
an' Ebenezer Johnson got in ahead of him. They told him the tavern was
full, an' he would be better tuk care of at a good woman's little farm
close by. They made him think, she said, that a gentleman with much
money wasn't allus safe at the tavern. Aunt Patty got him supper. He sit
at the table after it a-pickin' of his teeth. She got her pistol an'
went out in her garden a-hoein' of her flowers. Once she come up on him
at the window to shoot, but he turned quick, an' she says to him: 'Oh,
sir, I only want to see if you didn't need somethin' more.' 'No, no,'
says he; 'I've made a rale good supper.' 'I loves my flowers,' Aunt
Patty says,