he sign. Now, I should say it was Margeret the warning was for;
why should the likeness of her come to hint of your death?"

Nelse did not reply at once. He was deep in thought--a nervous,
fidgety season of thought--from which he finally emerged with a theory
evidently not of comfort to himself.

"I done been talken' too much," he whispered. "I talk on an' on
today; I clar fo'got yo' a plum stranger to we all. I tell all
sorts o' family things what maybe Mahs Duke not want tole. I
talked 'bout that gal Retta most, so he done sent a ghost what
look like Retta fo' a sign. Till day I die I gwine keep my mouth
shut 'bout Mahs Duke's folks, I tell yo', an' I gwine straight home
out o' way o' temptations."

So oppressed was he with the idea of Mahs Duke's displeasure that he
determined to do penance if need be, and commenced by refusing a coin
Delaven offered him.

"No, sah; I don' dar take it," he said, solemnly, "an' I glad to give
yo' back that othar dollar to please Mahs Duke, only I done turned it
into a houn' dog what Ben sold me, and Chloe--she Ben's mammy--she got
it from him, a'ready, an' paid it out fo' a pair candlesticks she been
grudgen' ole M'ria a long time back, so I don' see how I evah gwine
get it. But I ain't taken' no mo' chances, an' I ain't a risken' no
mo' ghost signs. Jest as much obliged to yo' all," and he sighed
regretfully, as Delaven repocketed the coin; "but I know when I got
enough o' ghosts."

Pluto had grace enough to be a trifle uneasy at the intense
despondency caused by his fiction in what he considered a good cause.
The garrulity of old Nelse was verging on childishness. Pluto was
convinced that despite the old man's wonderful memory of details in
the past, he was entirely irresponsible as to his accounts of the
present, and he did not intend that the McVeigh family or any of their
visitors should be the subject of his unreliable gossip. Pride of
family was by no means restricted to the whites. Revolutionary as
Pluto's sentiments were regarding slavery, his self esteem was
enhanced by the fact that since he was a bondman it was, at any rate,
to a first-class family--regular quality folks, whose honor he would
defend under any circumstances, whether bond or free.

His clumsily veiled queries about the probable result of Uncle Nelse's
attack aroused the suspicions of Delaven that the party of hunters had
found themselves hampered by the presence of their aged visitor, who
was desirou