this involuntary homage so pleased old Issachar that his heart
inclined toward the black race above the Christian whites around him.
If an aged negro fell sick, the Jew sent, by his ward, medicine and
food. If a very poor negro was buried, the Jew contributed to the
expenses. He gave the first counsel of worldly wisdom to the negro
freedmen, and gave them faithful interest on their savings. One slave
that he possessed he set free, saying:

"By Jacob's staff! I will not hold as cattle the blood people of my
son!"

His enlarged benevolence made no difference in his business. It grew
to the widest limits of that humble society, and by the accident of a
younger life coming forward to bear his honor up, Issachar grew into
sympathy with the social life of all the lower peninsula. If they
wanted money for public enterprise on the mainland, the Jew of
Chincoteague was first to be thought of. His credit, Masonic in its
reach, extended to his compatriots in distant cities, and the
politicians crossed the Sound to bring him into alliance with their
parties. To personal flattery he was obtuse, except when it reached
his ward, and then a melting mood came over him. At every Christmas he
led himself the eloquent Oriental prayer, young Abraham responding
with even a richer imagery, for his mind was alert, his schooling had
been private and unintermittent, and his father's enthusiasm and his
mother's docility made him a poet and a son together.

"My son," said the Jew, as Abraham's fifteenth Christmas approached,
"the time is at hand when we must part for years. I am growing old,
and the loss of thee, O my love! is harder than thou canst know. The
sands of life are running out with me, as from an hour-glass. With