y
anxious 'bout me an' Nancy; an' I tell her, 'No'm, I 'bleeged to git
home.'

"Well, when I got home Marse George he warn know all dat gwine on; but
I mighty sick--dat man done beat me so; an' he ax me what de marter,
an' I upped an' tell him.

"Gord! I nuver see a man in sich a rage. He call me in de office an'
meck me teck off my shut, an' he fyah bust out cryin'. He walked up
an' down dat office like a caged lion. Ef he had got he hand on Mr.
Darker den, he'd 'a kilt him, sho!

"He wuz most 'stracted. I don't know what he'd been ef I'd tell him
what Nancy tell me. He call for Peter to get he horse torectly, an' he
tell me to go an' git some'n from mammy to put on my back, an' to go to
bed torectly, an' not to say nuttin to nobody, but to tell he pa he'd
be away for two days, maybe; an' den he got on Reveller an' galloped
'way hard as he could, wid he jaw set farst, an' he heaviest whup
clamped in he hand. Gord! I wuz most hopin' he wouldn' meet dat man,
'cause I feared ef he did he'd kill him; an' he would, sho, ef he had
meet him right den; dee say he leetle mo' did when he fine him next
day, an' he had done been ridin' den all night; he cotch him at a sto'
on de road, an' dee say he leetle mo' cut him all to pieces; he drawed
a weepin on Marse George, but Marse George wrench it out he hand an'
flung it over de fence; an' when dee got him 'way he had weared he whup
out on him; an' he got dem whelps on him now, ef he ain' dead. Yes,
suh, he ain' let nobody else do dat he ain' do heself, sho!

"Dat done de business!

"He sont Marse George a challenge, but Marse George sont him wud he'll
cowhide him agin ef he ever heah any mo' from him, an' he 'ain't. Dat
perrify him, so he shet he mouf. Den come he ring an' all he pictures
an' things back--a gret box on 'em', and not a wud wid 'em. Marse
George, I think he know'd dee wuz comin', but dat ain' keep it from
huttin him, 'cause he done been 'gaged to Miss Charlotte, an' got he
mine riveted to her; an' do' befo' dat dee had stop writin', an' a riff
done git 'twixt 'em, he ain' satisfied in he mine dat she ain't gwine
'pologizee--I know by Nancy; but now he got de confirmation dat he done
for good, an' dat de gret gulf fixed 'twix him an' Aberham bosom. An',
Gord, suh, twuz torment, sho 'nough! He ain' say nuttin 'bout it, but
I see de light done pass from him, an' de darkness done wrap him up in
it. In a leetle while you wouldn' a knowed him.

"Den