o become a leader. He was while in power one of the most
dangerous men in the State, and so long as he had backing enough, he
staggered at nothing to keep the negroes stirred up. One of his schemes
was to get money from the negroes with which to pay, as he claimed, ten
per cent, for the best plantations in the State, after which, according
to his account, the Government was to give them the places. This scheme
worked well enough till the day of reckoning came, but happily it came.
Among those who were duped was old Caesar, who, unknown to Mam' Lyddy,
invested all his little savings in Amos Brown's homestead-plan and was
robbed. Partly in terror of Mam' Lyddy and partly in hopes of saving his
money, the old man made a full disclosure of the scheme, and with the
proof he furnished, Cabell Graeme and others succeeded in sending the
statesman to the penitentiary.

What Caesar possibly had to endure from Mam' Lyddy, only those could
imagine who knew her blistering tongue. From that time she took herself
not only everything that she made, but every cent that old Caesar made.

"You keep 'dis for me, Marse Cab. I 'm never goin' to trust dat Caesar
wid a cent long as I live. A nigger ain't got a bit o' sense about
money."

But though Caesar would gladly have paid all he made to purchase
immunity from her revilings, it is probable that he heard of his error
at least three times a day during the rest of his natural life.

II

As long as the old people lived, the French place was kept up; but the
exactions of hereditary hospitality ate deeply into what the war had
left, and after the death of old Colonel French and Mrs. French, and the
division of the estate, there was little left but the land, and that was
encumbered.

Happily, Cabell Graeme was sufficiently successful as a lawyer, not
only to keep his little family in comfort, but to receive an offer of
a connection in the North, which made it clearly to his interest to go
there. One of the main obstacles in the way of the move was Mam' Lyddy.
She would have gone with them, but for the combined influences of Old
Caesar and a henhouse full of hens that were sitting. The old man was
in his last illness, and a slow decline, and the chickens would soon be
hatched. Since, however, it was apparent that old Caesar would soon be
gone, as that the chickens would soon be hatched, Graeme having arranged
for Caesar's comfort, took his family with him when he moved.

He knew tha