The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays

making his toilet put some questions to his personal attenda

" sai

ck," responde

ip North. Would you

thing he had long contemplated in the abstract, but had never been able to muster up sufficien

ez long ez you 'd take keer er

rospect in case of failure, Tom was not likely to take any desperate chances; but young Owens was satisfied that in a free State but little persuasion would be required to lead Tom

en Dick went to breakfast, so Dick

hicken, "I 'm feeling a trifle run down. I imagine my health wo

e himself had been "raised" in comparative poverty, and had laid the foundations of his fortune by hard work; and while he despised the ladder by which he had climb

d run up to New York; and after I 've been there awhile I may go

the rascally abolitionists are saying and doing. They 're becoming altogether too active for our comfort, and entirely too many ungrateful niggers are running away. I hope the conviction of that fell

d dangerous to our institutions. But say, father

e often said, for a great many years, and, as he asserted oftener still, understanding them perfectly. It is scarcely wort

those low-down abolitionists. I strongly suspect him of having learned to read, though I can't imagine how. I saw him with a newspaper the oth

ave obliged his son in any other matter, but his negroes were the outwar

ake?" asked Dick. "I suppose I

besides, he 's sweet on your mother's maid, Betty, and I 've promised to let 'em get married before long. I 'll have Grandison up, and we 'll talk to him. Here, you boy Jack,"

onel, when the negro stoo

mars

always treat

mars

ways got all you

mars

and tobacco as was go

s, ma

better off than those poor free negroes down by the plank road, with no kind master

y ax 'em who dey b'long ter, dey has ter say nobody, er e'se lie erbout it. Anybody ax me who

ed, heartless monsters they were who would break up this blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand, of wise

Grandison, in order that you may take care of your young master. He will need some one to wait on him, and no one can ever do it so well as one of the boys brought up wit

yas, marster, I 'll t

ck

southern home, and send them away off yonder to Canada, a dreary country, where the woods are full of wildcats and wolves and bears, where the snow lies up to the eaves of the houses for six months of the year, and the cold is so severe that it freezes your breath an

, low-down abolitioners ter come nigh me, suh.

as hard as you can. I reckon they 'd rather like it. Begad, I bel

lectively, "I 'd tell Mars Dick, en he 'd fix 'em. He '

aster will protect you. You need

will dey, marster?" asked t

and remember always that he is your best friend, and understands your real needs, and has your true interests at heart, and if you will be careful to avoid strangers who try to talk to you, you 'll stand

be sho', suh; yas, 'deed you is. You kin jes' bet me and Mars Dick gwine git 'long jes' lack I wuz own boy ter

need n't work any more to-day, and here 's

d in dis worl'." And Grandison bowed and scraped and disappeared round the c

the colonel to his son. "I al