The Kentucky chap's face then assumed the most terrific expression I
ever saw, and says he:

"Are you not alarmed at your awful position?"

"No," says I.

The Conservative Kentucky chap lowered his pistol, and, motioning for
the brigadiers to come from behind their trees, advanced to my side.

"Hem!" says he, frowning majestically, "I think I understood you to
intimate that you were terrified."

"No," says I.

Here the Conservative Kentucky chap took me suddenly by the arm in a
very confidential manner, and, having led me a few paces back, says he,
in a horrible whisper: "You find yourself frightened, as it were."

"Why, no," says I.

"Well," says the Conservative Kentucky chap, "I AM."

And we all went home together.

Since then, my boy, I have weighed and contrasted my own feelings and
those of the Conservative Kentucky chap on that occasion, when I won an
everlasting reputation for bravery; and I am satisfied that the bravery
of a man in an affair of honor is a superior capacity for concealing
terror.

It was toward the middle of the week that I went down to Accomac to
attend a great Union meeting there, and it's my private opinion, my
boy, my private opinion, that the human tongue is not without its
province in this war. But before the meeting commenced, and whilst I
was reflecting upon the fact that it was the day on which the Prince of
Wales was to be married, a redeemed contraband saluted me, and says he:

"Mars'r, I hab been made a free man by Mars'r Lincoln, and hab opened a
Refreshment Saloon on de European plan. If you want to dine, sar,
here's my card. My name is Mister Negg."

I looked at the card as he left me, and found it to read thus:--

HAMAN NEGG'S

RESTAURANT.

ICH DIEN OYSTERS IN EVERY STYLE.

There was one thing about this inscription that I did not understand,
and says I to a chap near me:

"See here, my patriotic friend, what does this mean? What kind of
things are Ich Dien Oysters?"

"Oh," says he, obligingly, "you do not understand the Hanoverian
tongue. '_Ich Dien_' is the Prince of Wales' motto, and means '_I
serve_.' The phrase 'Ich Dien Oysters in Every Style' means, 'I serve
oysters in every style.'"

Then it was, my boy, that I saw in Mr. Negg's device the despised
African's testimonial of gratitude to Great Britain for the recent
reaction of anti-slavery sentiment there. A more delicate compliment,
my boy, was never offered to the mother country, wh