hese rebels, that they are
encouraged and emboldened by these tidings from the North, and to-day
they are turning people out of work for voting the radical ticket. A
while ago they tried flattery and cajolery. You could hear it on almost
every side--'We are the best friends of the colored people.' Appeals
were made to the memories of the past; how they hunted and played
together, and searched for birds' nests in the rotten peach trees, and
when the colored people were not to be caught by such chaff, some were
trying to force them into submission by intimidation and starvation."

Just then a knock was heard at the door, and a dark man entered. There
was nothing in his appearance that showed any connection with the white
race. There was a tone of hopefulness in his speech, though his face
wore a somewhat anxious expression.

"Good morning, Mr. Jackson," said Louis, for, in deference to their
feelings he had dropped the "aunt" and "uncle" of bygone days.

"Good morning," replied the man, while a pleasant smile flitted over his
countenance.

"How does the world use you?" said Louis.

"Well, times are rather bilious with me, but I am beginning to pick up a
little. I get a few boots and shoes to mend. I always used to go to the
mountains, and get plenty of work to do; but this year they wouldn't
give me the situation because I had joined the radicals."

"What a shame," said Louis; "these men who have always had their rights
of citizenship, seem to know so little of the claims of justice and
humanity, that they are ready to brow-beat and intimidate these people
for voting according to their best interests. And what saddens me most
is to see so many people of the North clasping hands with these rebels
and traitors, and to hear it repeated that these people are too ignorant
to vote."

"Ignorant as they are," said Minnie, "during the war they knew more than
their masters; for they knew how to be true to their country, when their
masters were false to it, and rallied around the flag, when they were
trampling it under foot, and riddling it with bullets."

"Ah!" said uncle Richard, "I knows them of old. Last week some of them
offered me $500 if I would desert my party; but I wasn't going to
forsake my people. I have been in purty tight places this year. One
night when I come home my little girl said to me, 'Daddy, dere ain't no
bread in de house.' Now, that jist got me, but I begun to pray, and the
next day I found a quarte