Off ran the hero, and Jupiter expecting the same
treatment, took himself off to bring in a fresh bag of earth.

Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour passed away, but still the rebels
did not commence their attack. The overseer said that they had uttered
the shrieks to frighten us, and also to get the slaves to desert us,
that they might murder us alone. I should have supposed that, like
other savages, they would have crept silently on us, so as to have taken
us unawares; but negroes, I have remarked, seldom act like other races
of people.

During the short time which had passed since the alarm was given, we had
made very tolerable preparations to receive the rebels. I had been
running about, trying to make myself as useful as I could, when the
captain called me up to him.

"I'm glad to see you wide-awake, Jack," said he. "Remember, when the
fight begins, as it will before long, stick close to me. I may want to
send you here and there for something or other; and if the worst comes,
and we are overpowered, we must try to cut our way out through the
rascals. Now set to work, and load those muskets; you know how, I
think. Ay, that will do; keep loading them as fast as I discharge them.
We may teach the Niggers a lesson they don't expect."

I was very proud of being thus spoken to by the captain, for it was the
first time that he had ever condescended to address me in so familiar a
way. It was generally--"Boy, bring me my shoes;" "Jump forward there,
and call the carpenter." I resolved to do my best not to disappoint
him.

I placed the powder-flask and bullets on one side of me, and the muskets
on the other, so that I could load one after the other without altering
my position. It never occurred to me all the time that there was the
slightest degree of danger. I thought that we had only to blaze away at
the Niggers, and that they would run off as fast as their legs could
carry them.

Never was I more mistaken. Soon after the captain had spoken to me we
were startled by another thunder-clap of shouts, and shrieks, and
unearthly cries, followed by several shot, the ringing taps which
succeeded each showing that the bullets had struck the house. Presently
a negro, who had been sent to keep a look-out on the roof, came tumbling
through a skylight, exclaiming, "Dey is coming, dey is coming, oh ki!"
Directly after this announcement, the shrieks and cries were heard like
a chorus of demons, and it was evident th