h of the
soil.

VI

"I must get some things for the boss, then we'll start home," announced
Mr. Grundy, after we were seated side by side in the rockaway. I noticed
with gratification that his voice had sunk a few notes. He had looked
askance at my yellow pup when I lifted him to a place at our feet, but
had only queried, "Is that part of your baggage?" and had not demurred.
His next speech was rather mystifying, for I had understood from Reuben
that this man was certainly lord of his manor, and presided in a lordly
way.

"The boss?" I asked, with a puzzled look, whereat he burst into a laugh
that hurt my ears.

"Bless me! I forgot that you were a bachelor," he replied, when his
risibles had subsided sufficiently for him to talk. "If you ever marry,
you'll find out who's boss. The niggers call me boss and Marse, but
_Sallie's_ boss of our plantation!"

We drove about town for perhaps half an hour, purchasing a supply of
groceries, then our horse's head was turned towards the open country.

"Antony'll take us home in less than an hour," said Mr. Grundy, eyeing
with pride the easy, far-reaching strides of the big bay. "That's the
best horse in my stables, Stone; there can't anything in the county
catch him. I've taken premiums with him at every fair in the circuit
ever since he was a yearling. It's a day's work for a nigger to drive
him to town and back, for he pulls on the lines every inch of the way,
and it takes good muscles to hold him in."

My companion did most of the talking on the road home. I addressed a few
polite questions, then fell to viewing the country through which we were
being whirled. The world was waking after its annual nap. The odor and
charm of spring pervaded the air. Tree-buds were bursting, and tender
leaves were spreading their tiny hands to the gentle sky. Immense
expanses of green wheat waved by the roadside, and each small blade
bowed its head to me in welcome. A pair of bluebirds flitted from stake
to stake of a rail fence at our right. Yonder two gentle undulations
prepared for corn swelled and fell away. Wherever I looked was freshness
and verdure, and the starting into life of green things beneath the
magic wand of spring. She holds the key to earth's resurrection, and she
alone can unlock the myriad gateways of the sod. And what a host comes
forth when her luring breath falls upon the barren ground!--cereals,
flowers, mosses, vines, and the thousand little things which h