wine and oil into the wound--though of the balm-pouring, none could
guess at the moment of wounding. It was not in Caspar Dabney to be
patient under a blow, and for a time his ragings threatened to shake
even Mammy Juliet's loyalty--than which nothing more convincing can be
said.

"'Fo' Gawd, Mistuh Scipio," she would say, when the master had sworn
volcanically at her for the fifth time in the course of one forenoon,
"I'se jus' erbout wo'ed out! I done been knowin' Mawstuh Caspah ebber
sence I was Ol' Mistis's tiah-'ooman--dat's what she call me in de
plantashum days--an' I ain't nev' seen him so fractious ez he been sence
dat letter come tellin' him come get dat po' li'l gal-child o' Mawstuh
Louis's. Seems lak he jus' gwine r'ar round twel he hu't somebody!"

Scipio, the Major's body-servant, had grown gray in the Dabney service,
and he was well used to the master's storm periods.

"Doan' you trouble yo'se'f none erbout dat, Mis' Juliet. Mawstuh Majah
tekkin' hit mighty hawd 'cause Mawstuh Louis done daid. But bimeby you
gwine see him climm on his hawss an' ride up yondeh to whah de big
steamboats comes in an' fotch dat li'l gal-child home; an' den:
uck--uh-h! look out, niggahs! dar ain't gwine be nuttin' on de top side
dishyer yearth good ernough for li'l Missy. You watch what I done tol'
you erbout dat, now!"

Scipio's prophecy, or as much of it as related to the bringing of the
orphaned Ardea to Deer Trace Manor, wrought itself out speedily, as a
matter of course, though there was a vow to be broken by the necessary
journey to the North. At the close of the war, Captain Louis, the
Major's only son, had become, like many another hot-hearted young