soon as Chad, the swirl of smoke rising from a broad ravine that spread into
broad fields, skirted by the great sweep of the river, for he sniffed the air
sharply, and trotted suddenly ahead. It was a cheering sight for Chad. Two
negro slaves were coming from work in a corn-field close by, and Jack's hair
rose when he saw them, and, with a growl, he slunk behind his master. Dazed,
Chad looked at them.

"Whut've them fellers got on their faces?" he asked. Tom laughed.

"Hain't you nuver seed a nigger afore?" he asked.

Chad shook his head.

"Lots o' folks from yo' side o' the mountains nuver have seed a nigger," said
Tom. "Sometimes hit skeers 'em."

"Hit don't skeer me," said Chad.

At the gate of the barn-yard, in which was a long stable with a deeply sloping
roof, stood the old brindle cow, who turned to look at Jack, and, as Chad
followed the three brothers through the yard gate, he saw a slim scarlet
figure vanish swiftly from the porch into the house.

In a few minutes, Chad was inside the big log cabin and before a big log-fire,
with Jack between his knees and turning his soft human eyes keenly from one to
another of the group about his little master, telling how the mountain cholera
had carried off the man and the woman who had been father and mother to him,
and their children; at which the old mother nodded her head in growing
sympathy, for there were two fresh mounds in her own graveyard on the point of
a low hill not far away; how old Nathan Cherry, whom he hated, had wanted to