"Yes, but I don't feel it, neither do you. The fire cannot be improved. See
how you have made the dust fly! You never can let well alone."

"That is the trouble with the Abolitionists," said Colonel Watson. "They
can't let well alone, and so Mr. Kent and his party want to reorganize the
Southern country."

"There is no well there to let alone," said Mr. Kent, with the air of a
Solomon.

"Don't talk so, Mr. Kent," said Mrs. Moore, entreatingly, "for I can't
quarrel with you in my own house, and I feel very much inclined to do so
for that one sentence."

"Now," said the bachelor captain, "I do long to hear you and Mr. Kent
discuss Abolition. The colonel and I may be considered disinterested
listeners, as we hail from the Middle States, and are not politicians.
Captain Moore cannot interfere, as he is host as well as husband; and Mr.
Jones and Scott have eaten too much to feel much interest in any thing just
now. Pray, tell Mr. Kent, my dear madam, of Susan's getting you to
intercede with her mistress to take her back, and see what he says."

"I know it already," said Mr. Kent, "and I must say that I am surprised to
find Mrs. Moore inducing a fellow-creature to return to a condition so
dreadful as that of a Southern slave. After having been plucked from the
fire, it should be painful to the human mind to see her thrown in again."

"Your simile is not a good one, Mr. Kent," said Mrs. Moore, with a
heightened color. "I can make a better. Susan, in a moment of delirium,