sound." He then dropped the chicken into the plate,
leant back, placed his thumbs in the armholes of
his fancy waistcoat, and continued, "I would not
take a nigger to the North under no consideration.
I have had a deal to do with niggers in my time,
but I never saw one who ever had his heel upon
free soil that was worth a d----n." "Now
stranger," addressing my master, "if you have
made up your mind to sell that ere nigger, I
am your man; just mention your price, and if it
isn't out of the way, I will pay for him on this
board with hard silver dollars." This hard-featured,
bristly-bearded, wire-headed, red-eyed monster,
staring at my master as the serpent did at Eve,
said, "What do you say, stranger?" He replied,
"I don't wish to sell, sir; I cannot get on well with-
out him."

"You will have to get on without him if you
take him to the North," continued this man; "for
I can tell ye, stranger, as a friend, I am an older
cove than you, I have seen lots of this ere world,
and I reckon I have had more dealings with niggers
than any man living or dead. I was once employed
by General Wade Hampton, for ten years, in doing
nothing but breaking 'em in; and everybody knows
that the General would not have a man that didn't
understand his business. So I tell ye, stranger,
again, you had better sell, and let me take him
down to Orleans. He will do you no good if you