"Were you away yesterday?"

"No, sir."

"Do you know why these boys have not got home this morning yet?"

"No, sir, I have not seen any of them since Saturday night."

"By the Eternal, I'll make them know their hour. The fact is, I have too
many of you; my people are getting to be the most careless, lazy, and
worthless in the country."

"Master," said my father, "I am always at my post; Monday morning never
finds me off the plantation."

"Hush, Bazil! I shall have to sell some of you; and then the rest will
have enough to do; I have not work enough to keep you all tightly
employed; I have too many of you."

All this was said in an angry, threatening, and exceedingly insulting
tone. My father was a high-spirited man, and feeling deeply the insult,
replied to the last expression,--"If I am one too many, sir, give me a
chance to get a purchaser, and I am willing to be sold when it may suit
you."

"Bazil, I told you to hush!" and suiting the action to the word, he drew
forth the "cowhide" from under his arm, fell upon him with most savage
cruelty, and inflicted fifteen or twenty severe stripes with all his
strength, over his shoulders and the small of his back. As he raised
himself upon his toes, and gave the last stripe, he said, "By the * * * I