* * * *

AMONG THE PINES.

'Dee ye tink Massa Davy wud broke his word, sar?' said the old negress,
bridling up her bent form, and speaking in a tone in which indignation
mingled with wounded dignity; 'p'raps gemmen do dat at de Norf--dey
neber does it har.'

'Excuse me, Aunty; I know your master is a man of honor; but he's very
much excited, and very angry with Scip.'

'No matter for dat, sar; Massa Davy neber done a mean ting sense he war
born.'

'Massa K---- tinks a heap ob de Gunnel, Aunty; but he reckons he'm sort
o' crazy now; dat make him afeard,' said Scip, in an apologetic tone.

'What ef he am crazy? You'se safe _har_,' rejoined the old woman,
dropping her aged limbs into a chair, and rocking away with much the
same air which ancient white ladies occasionally assume.

'Won't you ax Massa K---- to a cheer?' said Scip; 'he hab ben bery kine
to me.'

The negress then offered me a seat; but it was some minutes before I
rendered myself sufficiently agreeable to thaw out the icy dignity of
her manner. Meanwhile I glanced around the apartment.

Though the exterior of the cabin was like the others on the plantation,
the interior had a rude, grotesque elegance about it far in advance of
any negro hut I had ever seen. The logs were chinked with clay, and the
one window, though destitute of glass, and ornamented with the
inevitable board-shutter, had a green moreen curtain, which kept out the
wind and the rain. A worn but neat and well-swept carpet partly covered
the floor, and on the low bed was spread a patch-work counterpane.
Against the side of the room opposite the door stood an antique,
brass-handled bureau, and an old-fashioned table, covered with a faded
woolen cloth, occupied the centre of the apartment. In the corner near
the fire was a curiously-contrived side-board, made of narrow strips of
yellow pine, tongued and grooved together, and oiled so as to bring out
the beautiful grain of the wood. On it were several broken and cracked
glasses, and an array of irregular crockery. The rocking-chair, in which
the old negress passed the most of her time, was of mahogany, wadded and
covered with chintz, and the arm-seat I occupied, though old and patched
in many places, had evidently moved in good society.

The mistress of this second-hand furniture establishment was arrayed in
a mass of cast-off finery, whose gay colors were in striking contrast
with her jet-black skin and bent, decrepi