of the late
breakfast talk of Stackridge and his friends as he thought would
interest Pomp and win his confidence. Then he drank the strong, black
beverage in silence, leaving the negro to his own reflections.

"Are you going again?" said Pomp.

"Yes; I promised them I would return."

"Take some coffee and a kettle to boil it in; they will be glad of it, I
should think."

"O Pomp! you know how to do good even to your enemies! What shall I say
to them for you?"

"What I have to say to them I will say myself," said Pomp, taking his
rifle in one hand, and the kettle in the other, to Cudjo's great wrath
and disgust.

He set out with Penn immediately. They found the patriots reposing
themselves about the roots of the forest trees, on the banks of a stream
that came gurgling and plashing down the mountain side. Above them
spread the beautiful green tops of maples, tinted with sunshine and
softly rustling in the breeze. The curving banks formed here a little
natural amphitheatre, carpeted with moss and old leaves, on which they
sat or reclined, with their hats off and their guns at their sides.

A sentry posted on the edge of the forest brought in Penn and his
companion. There was a stir of interest among the patriots, and some of
them rose to their feet. Stackridge, Grudd, and two or three others
cordially offered the negro their hands, and pledged him their gratitude
and friendship. Pomp accepted these tokens of esteem in silence,--his
countenance maintaining a somewhat haughty expression, his lips firm,
his eyes kindling with a strange light.

Penn took the kettle, and proceeded, with Carl's help, to make a fire
and prepare coffee for the company, intently listening the while to all
that was said.

Jutting from one bank of the stream, which washed its base, was a huge,
square block covered with dark-green moss. Upon this Pomp stepped, and
rested his rifle upon it, and bared his massive and splendid head, and
stood facing his auditors with a placid smile, under the canopy of
leaves. There was not among them all so noble a figure of a man as he
who stood upon the rock; and he seemed to have chosen this somewhat
theatrical attitude in order to illustrate, by his own imposing personal
presence, the words that rose to his lips.

"You will excuse me, gentlemen, if I cannot forget that I am talking
with those who buy and sell men like me!"

Men like him! The suggestion seemed for a moment to strike the
slave-owning