shown more than business benevolence. It was a surprising thing to the
people of Chincoteague, when the news went round that he had been over
to court at Drummond-town and given his recognizance to bring up the
orphan boy--whom he named Abraham Purnell--so that the county should
not be at the expense of him, and he also brought out from New York,
on the Eli's next trip, a Hebrew woman to be the boy's matron. Suckled
at a negro's breast, Abraham grew to a vigorous youth, resembling his
guardian's race and his mother's as well, in the curling nature of his
hair and the brightness of his eyes. The Old Testament Scriptures
alone were taught him, and Issachar himself joined the family circle
at daily prayer to encourage the faith of Israel in the stranger. The
finest of the lean, tough ponies, bred only on Chincoteague, and
renowned throughout the peninsula for their endurance, was bought for
the boy, as he grew older. He was made Issachar's companion, and, in
course of time, passed in fireside talk for a Jew, like his protector.

Only once the superior comfort and clothing of Issachar's _protégé_
provoked the remark from one of a group of men that Abraham was "only
a stuck-up nigger, anyway;" and then, like a maniac, Old Issachar
dashed from his store with a boat-hook and struck down the offender
like a dead man.

But the boy was of such docile and beautiful nature that he excited no
general antagonism. He was four removals from pure African blood, and
as his mother had been a freed girl, he was a citizen, or might be if
he pleased. The certain heir of Issachar's possessions, the only thing
except gold that Issachar loved, and of a parentage which linked
misfortune with piety, his mysterious nativity gave him with the
negroes a sacred character. They believed that he would become their
king and priest and lead them out of bondage to a promised land; and