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After enjoying a quiet hour with the Colonel in the smoking-room, he invited me to join him in a ride over the plantation. I gladly assented, and 'Jim' shortly announced the horses were ready. That darky, who invariably attended his master when the latter proceeded from home, accompanied us. As we were mounting I bethought me of Scip, and asked Jim where he was. 'He'm gwine to gwo, massa.
'No, but I'll tell the Colonel the truth. He war sort o' sassy, and de Oberseer strung him up and flog him bery hard. Den Sam took to de swamp, but he didn't know whar to gwo, and de dogs tracked him; he'd ha' got 'way dough ef de Oberseer hadn't shot him; den he cudn't run.
'I shan't lef you gwo, Cunnel, till you 'gree not to do dat. The Colonel was a stout, athletic man, in the very prime of life, and his rage gave him more than his ordinary strength, but Scip held him as I might have held a child. 'Here, Jim, shouted the Colonel to his body-servant, who just then emerged from among the trees, 'rouse the plantation shoot this d nigger.
I'll go and see him. Don't feel badly, June, he continued, for the tears welled up to the eyes of the black man as he spoke of his child; 'we all must die. 'I knows dat, massa, but it am hard to hab em gwo. 'Yes, it is, June, but we may save him. 'Ef you cud, massa! Oh, ef you cud! and the poor darky covered his face with his great hands and sobbed like a child.
He neber break, 'case de sebenfh dip am shet off, or 'case de price of turpentime gwo down at de Norf. He neber sell his niggers down Souf, 'case he lose his money on de hoss-race. No, my chil'ren, our HEABENLY Massa am rich, RICH, I say. He own all dis worle, and all de odor worles dat am shinin' up dar in de sky.
'Sam, har, my children, war wicked, but don't we pity him; don't we tink he had a hard time, and don't we tink de bad oberseer, who'm layin' dar in de house jess ready to gwo and answer for it don't we tink he gabe Sam bery great probincation? 'Dat's so, said a dozen of the auditors. 'Den don't you 'spose dat de blessed Lord know all dat, and dat He pity Sam too?
''Cause, massa, I know'd you'd jaw; you tole me I wears 'em out mighty fass. 'Well, you do, that's a fact; but go to Madam and get a pair; and you, June, you've been a decent nigger, you can ask for a dress for Rosey. How is little June? 'Mighty pore, massa; de ma'am war dar lass night and dis mornin', and she reckun'd he's gwine to gwo sartain. 'Sorry to hear that, said the Colonel.
The darky was a fine specimen of sable humanity, and I readily understood why the practiced eye of the Colonel appreciated his physical developments. 'Scip, I said, 'you must not think of going to-day; the Colonel will be glad to let you remain until you are fully rested. 'Tank you, massa, tank you bery much, but de ole man will spec me, and I orter gwo.
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