(though half-believing it must be an hallucination) that I beard my
own name. In a trice I was out of bed, and groping my way under it,
my hand struck against something projecting from the floor, and at
the same moment I heard distinctly, and as it were in my very ear,
a low whisper, "Massa Bold, Massa Bold!"

"Who is there?" I whispered in return, and, clutching the thing my
hand had touched, I felt it move.

I tightened my grasp upon it; it was round, and as I discovered by
laying my other hand upon its top, hollow. Struck by a sudden
thought I bent my face down, and whispered again into the hole,
"Who is there?" afterwards turning my ear upon it.

"Massa Bold, lill Missy sends a letter."

The words came clearly up the tube.

"Me poke it up," said the voice again.

I withdrew my ear, and waited in a tense breathlessness of
amazement. Then I heard a slight rustling, and placing my hand on
the tube, I felt a small piece of paper thrust against it. Grasping
this, all my frame thrilling with excitement, I whispered again:

"Who are you?"

"Me Uncle Moses," said the voice. "Good night, sah; come again
tomorrow."