"Well, if it makes no difference to you, Mr. Hubbard, I'd prefer not seeing
any more of these publications about me. This number is a literary
curiosity, and deserves to be preserved; but as I do not file papers at
present, I will just return it, after expressing my thanks to you for
affording me the means of obtaining valuable information about the Southern
country."

"What is it about, Arthur," said Abel Johnson, "it is too hot to read this
morning, so pray enlighten me?"

"Why, here," said Arthur, opening the paper again, "here is an
advertisement, said to be copied from a Southern paper, in which, after
describing a runaway slave, it says: 'I will give four hundred dollars for
him alive, and the same sum for satisfactory proof that he has been
killed.' Then the editor goes on to say, 'that when a planter loses a
slave, he becomes so impatient at not capturing him, and is so angry at the
loss, that he then does what is equivalent to inducing some person to
murder him by way of revenge.' Now, is not this infamous?"

"But it is true, I believe," said Mr. Hubbard.

"It is not true, sir," said Arthur, "it is false, totally and entirely
false. Why, sir, do you mean to say, that the life of a slave is in the
power of a master, and that he is not under the protection of our laws?"

"I am told that is the case," said Mr. Hubbard.

"Then you are told what is not true; and it seems to me, you are remarkably
ignorant of the laws of your country."