urses or attendants. Have you had the fever?"

"No, Ma'am."

"They should have thought of that when they put him here; wounds and
fevers should not be together. I'll try to get you moved."

He laughed a sudden laugh,--if he had been a white man, I should have
called it scornful; as he was a few shades darker than myself, I suppose
it must be considered an insolent, or at least an unmannerly one.

"It don't matter, Ma'am. I'd rather be up here with the fever than down
with those niggers; and there a'n't no other place fer me."

Poor fellow! that was true. No ward in all the hospital would take him
in to lie side by side with the most miserable white wreck there. Like
the bat in AEsop's fable, he belonged to neither race; and the pride of
one, the helplessness of the other, kept him hovering alone in the
twilight a great sin has brought to overshadow the whole land.

"You shall stay, then; for I would far rather have you than my lazy
Jack. But are you well and strong enough?"

"I guess I'll do, Ma'am."

He spoke with a passive sort of acquiescence,--as if it did not much
matter, if he were not able, and no one would particularly rejoice, if
he were.

"Yes, I think you will. By what name shall I call you?"

"Bob, Ma'am."

Every woman has her pet whim; one of mine was to teach the men
self-respect by treating them respectfully. Tom, Dick, and Harry would
pass, when lads rejoiced in those familiar abbreviations; but to address
men often old enough to be my father in that style did not suit my
old-fashioned ideas of propriety. This "Bob" would never do; I should
have found it as easy to call the chaplain "Gus" as my tragical-looking
contraband by a title so strongly associated with the tail of a kite.

"What is your other name?" I asked. "I like to call my attendants by
their last names rather than by their first."

"I've got no other, Ma'am; we have our masters' names, or do without.
Mine's dead, and I won't have anything of his about me."

"Well, I'll call you Robert, then, and you may fill this pitcher for me,
if you will be so kind."

He went; but, through all the tame obedience years of servitude had
taught him, I could see that the proud spirit his father gave him was
not yet subdued, for the look and gesture with which he repudiated his
master's name were a more effective declaration of independence than any
Fourth-of-July orator could have prepared.

We spent a curious week together. Robert seldom l