ideration, Cudjo."

"Talk o' you nussin' him when him's got Pomp!"

"Pomp! what can Pomp do? Wouldn't trust him to nuss a chick sicken!"
Toby talked backwards in his excitement.

"Ki! didn't him take Massa Hapgood and make him well? Don't ye know
nuffin'?"

Toby seemed staggered for a moment. But he rallied quickly, and said,--

"He cure Massa Hapgood? He done jes' nuffin' 't all fur him. De fac's
is, I had de nussin' on him for a spell at fust, and gib him a start.
Dar's ebery ting in a start, Cudjo."

"O, what a stupid nigger!" said Cudjo. "Hyar's Massa Hapgood hisself!
leab it to him now!"

"You are both right," said Penn. "Toby did nurse me, and give me a good
start; for which I shall always thank him."

"Dar! tol' ye so, tol' ye so!" said Toby.

"But it was Pomp who afterwards cured me," added Penn.

"Dar! tol' you so!" cried Cudjo, while Toby's countenance fell.

"For while Toby is a capital nurse" (Toby brightened), "Pomp is a
first-rate doctor" (Cudjo grinned). "So don't dispute any more. Shake
hands with your old friend, Cudjo, and show him into your house."

Cudjo was still reluctant; but just then occurred a pleasing incident,
which made him feel good-natured towards everybody. Pomp and Pepperill
arrived, bringing the bag of meal and the basket of potatoes which the
bear-hunters had forsaken in the woods, and which the rain had preserved
from the fire.

XXXI.

_LYSANDER TAKES POSSESSION._

Gad the "Sleeper" (he had earned that title) had been himself placed
under guard for drinking too much of the prisoners' liquor, and
suffering them to escape. Miserable, sullen, thirsty, he languished in
confinement.

"Let 'em shoot me, and done with it, if that's the penalty," said this
chivalrous son of the south; "only give a feller suthin' to drink!"

But that policy of the confederates, which opened the jails of the
country, and put arms in the hands of the convicts, and pardoned every
felon that would fight, might be expected to find a better use for an
able-bodied fellow, like Gad, than to shoot him.

The use they found for him was this: He had been a mighty hunter before
the Lord, ere he became too besotted and lazy for such sport; and he
professed to know the mountains better than any other man. Accordingly,
on the recommendation of his friend Lieutenant Ropes, it was resolved to
send him to spy out the position of the patriots. It was an enterprise
of some danger, and, to encourage h