lingered; even the slow improvement that could be detected was marked
by the languor of convalescence. The helplessness of a race, hitherto
dependent upon certain barbaric conditions or political place and power,
unskilled in invention, and suddenly confronted with the necessity of
personal labor, was visible everywhere. Eyes that but three short years
before had turned vindictively to the North, now gazed wistfully to that
quarter for help and direction. They scanned eagerly the faces of their
energetic and prosperous neighbors--and quondam foes--upon the verandas
of Southern hotels and the decks of Southern steamboats, and were even
now watching from a group in the woods the windows of the halted train,
where the faces appeared of two men of manifestly different types, but
still alien to the country in dress, features, and accent.

Two negroes were slowly loading the engine tender from a woodpile. The
rich brown smoke of the turpentine knots was filling the train with its
stinging fragrance. The elder of the two Northern passengers, with sharp
New England angles in his face, impatiently glanced at his watch.

"Of all created shiftlessness, this beats everything! Why couldn't we
have taken in enough wood to last the ten miles farther to the terminus
when we last stopped? And why in thunder, with all this firing up, can't
we go faster?"

The younger passenger, whose quiet, well-bred face seemed to indicate
more discipline of character, smiled.

"If you really wish to know and as we've only ten miles farther to
go--I'll show you WHY. Come with me."

He led the way through the car to the platform and leaped down. Then he