e room to obey, and returned ushering in an
individual who, as he performs an important part in this history,
deserves some special notice.

He was a mulatto, between forty-five and fifty years of age, of medium
size, and regular features, with a quantity of woolly hair and beard
that hung down upon his breast. He was neatly dressed in the gray
homespun cloth of the country, and entered with a smiling countenance
and respectful manner. Upon the whole he was rather a good-looking and
pleasing darky. He was a character, too, in his way. He possessed a fair
amount of intellect, and a considerable fund of general information. He
had contrived, somehow or other, to read and write; and he would read
everything he could lay his hands on, from the Bible to the almanac. He
had formed his own opinions upon most of the subjects that interest
society, and he expressed them freely. He kept himself well posted up in
the politics of the day, and was ready to discuss them with anyone who
would enter into the debate.

He had a high appreciation of himself, and also a deep veneration for
his superiors. And thus it happened that, when in the presence of his
betters, he maintained a certain sort of droll dignity in himself while
treating them with the utmost deference. He was faithful in his dealings
with his numerous employers, all of whom he looked upon as so many
helpless dependents under his protection, for whose well-being in
certain respects he was strictly responsible. So much for his character.
In circumstances he was a free man, living with his wife and children,
who were also free, in a small house on Mr. Brudenell's estate, and
supporting his family by such a very great variety of labor as had
earned for him the title of "Professor of Odd Jobs." It was young Herman
Brudenell, when a boy, who gave him this title, which, from its singular
appropriateness, stuck to him; for he could, as he expressed it himself,
"do anything as any other man could do." He could shoe a horse, doctor a
cow, mend a fence, make a boot, set a bone, fix a lock, draw a tooth,
roof a cabin, drive a carriage, put up a chimney, glaze a window, lay a
hearth, play a fiddle, or preach a sermon. He could do all these
things, and many others besides too numerous to mention, and he did do
them for the population of the whole neighborhood, who, having no
regular mechanics, gave this "Jack of all Trades" a plenty of work. This
universal usefulness won for him, as I