have made the others some trouble to catch him, for he was the smartest
runner among the children; but as he turned he tripped on a stone, and
lay sprawling. "Tag," cried Hal, Katy's cousin, as he placed his feet on
the little fellow's back and jumped over him. It was cruel, but what did
Hal care for the "little nigger." If he had been at home he would have
had some little fear of breaking the child's back, for his father was
more careful of his _property_ than Uncle Stamford was.

Before Lewis could rise, two or three of the negro boys, who were always
too ready to imitate the vices of their masters, had made the boy a
stepping stone, and then Dick, his master's eldest son, came down upon
him with both knees, and began to cuff him roundly.

"So, you black scamp, you thought you'd run away with the tag, did you!"
Just then he perceived the primer that was peeping out of Lewis's shirt
bosom. "Ha! what's here?" said he; "a primer, as I live! And what are
you doing with this, I'd like to know?"

"Missy Katy give it to me, and she is teaching me my letters out of it.
Please, massa, let me have it again," said he, beseechingly, as Dick
made a motion as if to throw it away. "I would like to learn how
to read."

"You would, would you!" said Dick. "You'd like to read to Tom and Sam,
down on a Louisiana plantation, in sugar time, when you'd nothing else
to do, I suppose. Ha, ha, ha!" and the young tyrant, giving the boy a
vigorous kick or two as he rose, stuffed the book into his own pocket,
and walked off.

Poor Lewis! He very well knew the meaning of that taunt, and he did not