. . .Lord bless you, massa, for saying dat; and de Lord bless you for telling dat big Cunnel, dat if dey gwo to war de brack man will be Free!"

"Did you hear what we said?" I inquired, greatly surprised, for I remembered remarking, during the interview[Pg 46] of the previous evening, that our host carefully kept the doors closed.

"Ebery word, massa."

"But how could you hear? The doors and windows were shut. Where were you?"

"On de piazzer; and when I seed fru de winder dat de ladies war gwine, I know'd you'd talk 'bout politics and de darkies—gemmen allers do. So I opened de winder bery softly—you didn't har 'cause it rained and blowed bery hard, and made a mighty noise. Den I stuffed my coat in de crack, so de wind could'nt blow in and lef you know I was dar, but I lef a hole big 'nough to har. My ear froze to dat hole, massa, bery tight, I 'shore you."

"But you must have got very wet and very cold."

"Wet, m. . . Read More