fell down on the floor and rolled round and round. When the gals saw their
own turn they let me go and I hurried outside and stood behind the house,
beneath a beautiful bright moon, which saw me that night the most wretched
of all negroes in the land of Dixie; and what made me feel, in my own
opinion, that my humiliation was just as complete as the triumph of the
negroes inside was glorious, was that the gals had turned my pockets out,
and found that the hundreds of dollars they had thought my pockets
contained, consisted of 24 cents or pennies, and 50 brass buttons.
Everything was alive and happy inside the room, but no one knew or cared
how miserable I was--the joy and life of the dance that night seemed
entirely at my expense, all through my unfortunate shirt tail. The first
thing I thought of now was revenge. Take your comfort, niggers now, said I
to myself, for sorrow shall be yours in the morning, so I took out my
knife and went round the fence and cut every horse loose, and they all ran
away. I then got on my horse and set off home. As I rode on I thought to
myself--I only wish I could be somewhere close enough to see how those
negroes will act when they come out and find all their horses gone. And
then I laughed right out when I thought of the sport they had had out of
my misfortune, and that some were ten to twelve, and some fifteen miles
away from home. Well, thought I, your masters will have to reckon with you
to-morrow; you have had glad hearts to-night at my expense, but you will
have sore backs to-morrow at your own. Now, when I got home, the stable
was in a very bad situation, and I was afraid to bring my horse in until I
could strike a light. When this was done, I took the saddle and bridle off
outside. No sooner had I done this than my horse reared over the bars and
ran away into the meadow. I chased him till daylight, and for my life I
could not catch him. My feelings now may be better imagined than
described. When the reader remembers that this horse, with all the rest,
master had seen clean at six o'clock the night before, and all safe in the
stable, and now to see him in the meadow, with all the marks of having