. Let's
do as he told us."

The girl put the bench out of the way, that he might not fall over it in
the dark; and out of the room they tip-toed and silently they closed the
door. By the hand he led her to the road, and with a coo and a song they
strolled homeward. The clouds were scattered and acres of light lay on
the cleared land; but the woods were dark and the shadows were black,
and he walked with his arm about her. They heard the galloping of a
horse and stepped aside to let the rider pass, and when he had passed,
with his head in the moonlight and his horse in the dark, the young man
said: "I know that fellow."

"Why didn't you speak to him?" she asked.

"Because it wouldn't do for me to have any words with him. He's the man
that's trying to organize the negroes."

He left her at Wash Sanders' gate; he heard her feet upon the steps, and
looking back he caught the kiss she threw at him.

CHAPTER XIX.

A steamboat ride to New Orleans will never lose its novelty. Romance
lies along the lower river. The land falls away and we look down upon
fields bounded by distant mist, and beyond that dim line one's fancy
gallops riotously. Not alone the passenger, but the seasoned captain of
the boat stands musing and motionless, gazing upon the scene. In his
mind he could carry the form and the rugged grandeur of a mountain; upon
a crag he could hang his recollection, but this flat endlessness is ever
an unencompassed mystery.

The wind from the gulf was soft, and the two friends stood on the
hurricane-deck, charmed with a familiar view.

"It is just as new to me now as it was when I was a boy, coming along
here with my father," said the giant. "And yet I don't see what makes it
interesting, no woods, nothing but a house here and there."

"It always makes me think I'm going over the flat side of the globe, and
I catch myself wondering what's just beyond," Tom replied. "There's the
city 'way round yonder. How long do you want to stay?"

"I don't know exactly."

"Got any particular business down here?"

"No," he said, hesitatingly. "None that I know of."

"Just pleasure, is it?"

"Well, I reckon we might call it that."

"Might call it that? But I know why I'm here. I've come because you
wanted me to. There is nothing going on that I care to see. What is it
you're after?"

"Oh, just want to look around a little."

"All right, old fellow, I'm with you, but as soon as you get tired of
looking around I