witches flew into my face. I jumped back and grasped it, but it proved
to be one of those lightning bugs, and I thought that if all the witches
were like that one, I should not be in any great danger from them.


THE DEATH OF CYRUS AND STEPNEY.

Old Col. Dick Singleton had several state places as I have mentioned. In
the South, the rich men who had a great deal of money bought all the
plantations they could get and obtained them very cheap. The Colonel had
some ten or twenty places and had slaves settled on each of them.

He had four children, and after each had received a plantation, the rest
were called state places, and these could not be sold until all the
grandchildren should become of age; after they all had received places,
the rest could be sold.

One of the places was called Biglake. The slaves on these places were
treated more cruelly than on those where the owner lived, for the
overseers had full sway.

One day the overseer at Biglake punished the slaves so that some of them
fell exhausted. When he came to the two men, Cyrus and Stepney, they
resisted, but were taken by force and severely punished. A few days
afterwards the overseer died, and those two men were taken up and hanged
on the plantation without judge or jury.

After that another overseer was hired, with orders to arm himself, and
every slave who did not submit to his punishment was to be shot
immediately. At times, when the overseer was angry with a man he would