one deriving his descent from the
debased races of Africa, and the other from the fierce but lofty-minded
aboriginal inhabitant of this continent--dwelt nearly for the whole
period of an ordinary human life. The cabin itself began to look really
ancient, while those who dwelt in it had little altered within the
memory of man! Such instances of longevity, whatever theorists may say
on the subject, are not unfrequent among either the blacks or the
"natives," though probably less so among the last than among the first,
and still less so among the first of the northern than of the southern
sections of the republic. It is common to say that the great age so
often attributed to the people of these two races is owing to ignorance
of the periods of their births, and that they do not live longer than
the whites. This may be true, in the main, for a white man is known to
have died at no great distance from Ravensnest, within the last
five-and-twenty years, who numbered more than his six score of years;
but aged negroes and aged Indians are nevertheless so common, when the
smallness of their whole numbers is remembered, as to render the fact
apparent to most of those who have seen much of their respective people.

There was no highway in the vicinity of the wigwam, for so the cabin was
generally called, though wigwam, in the strict meaning of the word, it
was not. As the little building stood in the grounds of the Nest House,
which contain two hundred acres, a bit of virgin forest included, and
exclusively of the fields that belonged to the adjacent farm, it was
approached only by foot-paths, of which several led to and from it, and
by one narrow, winding carriage-road, which, in passing for miles
through the grounds, had been led near the hut, in order to enable my
grandmother and sister, and, I dare say, my dear departed mother, while
she lived, to make their calls in their frequent airings. By this
sweeping road we approached the cabin.

"There are the two old fellows, sunning themselves this fine day!"
exclaimed my uncle, with something like tremor in his voice, as we drew
near enough to the hut to distinguish objects. "Hugh, I never see these
men without a feeling of awe, as well as of affection. They were the
friends, and one was the slave of my grandfather; and as long as I can
remember, have they been aged men! They seem to be set up here as
monuments of the past, to connect the generations that are gone with
those that