he pressed his teeth together, and there passed again
over his face the same look it wore the moment before.

'Come, come, Jim, this may be true of your race; but it don't apply to
yourself. Your master is kind and indulgent to _you_.'

'He am kind to me, sar; he orter be,' said the negro, the savage
expression coming again into his eyes. For a moment he hesitated; then,
taking a step toward me, he placed his face down to mine, and hissed out
these words, every syllable seeming to come from the very bottom of his
being. 'I tell you he orter be, sar, FUR I AM HIS OWN FATHER'S SON!'

'Your brother!' I exclaimed, springing to my feet, and looking at him in
blank amazement. 'It can't be true.'

'It am true, sar--as true as there's a hell! His father had my mother:
when he got tired of her, he sold her Souf. _I was too young den eben to
know her_!'

'This is horrible, too horrible!' I said.

'It am slavery, sar! Shouldn't we be contented?' replied the negro with
a grim smile. Drawing, then, a large spring-knife from his pocket, he
waved it above his head, adding: 'Ef I had all de white race dar--right
dar under dat knife, don't yer tink I'd take all dar lives--all at one
blow--to be FREE!'

'And yet you refused to run away when the Abolitionists tempted you, at
the North. Why didn't you go then?'

''Cause I had promised, massa.'

'Promised the Colonel before you went?'

'No, sar, he neber axed me; but _I_ can't tell you no more. P'raps
Scipio will, ef you ax him.'

'Oh! I see; you're in that league, of which Scip is a leader. You'll get
into trouble, _sure_,' I replied, in a quick, decided tone, which
startled him.

'You tole Scipio dat, sar, and what did _he_ tell you?'

'That he didn't care for his life.'

'No more do I, sar,' said the negro, as he turned on his heel with a
proud, almost defiant gesture, and started to go.

'A moment, Jim. You are very imprudent; never say these things to any
other mortal; promise me that.'

'You'se bery good, massa, bery good. Scipio say you's true, and he'm
allers right. I ortent to hab said what I hab; but sumhow, sar, dat news
brought it all up _har_,' (laying his hand on his breast,) 'and it wud
come out.'

The tears filled his eyes as he said this, and turning away without
another word, he passed from my sight behind the trees.

I was almost stunned by this strange revelation, but the more I
reflected on it, the more probable it appeared. Now, too, that my
th