the days grew hotter, the green corn waved on the hill-side, the wheat was ripening, but the deep mystery of death was over it all. the boy goes about his play, he shouts and has his daily contentions, his quarrels and fights, but darkness comes, and as he goes to his bed, his mind reverts to a soul that has recently taken its flight. older people have the consoling prop of religion or the forceful brace of philosophy, but in the boy's nostrils lives the scent of the roses that lay upon the breast of mystic death; a fear possesses him as he peeps in at the parlor door. ah, many days must fall upon a sad memory before it is sweetened. they told me that my young mistress was in heaven. i asked aunt mag if she would be my mistress there, and she said no, that there was no mistresses in heaven, no slaves, but all white and the angels of god. and with the flash of iconoclastic reason that comes to youth, i asked her why god made black people belong to white people on the earth and afterward made them all equal in heaven. the old woman turned from her spinning[pg 26] wheel and held up her hands in fright. "chile," she said, "you musn't talk like dat. whut de lawd do it ain't fur us ter question, an' ef you wan't so young you mout git struck wid lightenin' fur sayin' dem words. run off ober yander in de yard an' play. i'se er feered de lightenin' mought strike at you anyhow."

that night as bob and i lay in our room, he in his high canopied bed, and i on my low lounge, i asked him if he knew that all the black people would be white in heaven. "yes, of course," he answered. "it would be a funny heaven with a lot of niggers standing about, grinning."

"but they wouldn't have to grin."

"no, but they would."

"and you won't own me there, will you?" i said, after a moment's silence.

"no, you'll belong to god."

"but don't i belong to god now?"

i heard him turn over. "yes, but you belong to me, too. and when i get through with you god may have you. get over in my bed and i'll bet i can throw you out."

"no, old miss might hear us. but do you think," i asked after musing for a time, "that we'll know each[pg 27] other up there and talk about the time when we were down here?"

"yes; why not?"

"but you'd tell me that i used to belong to you and god wouldn't like that."

"well, then, we won't say anything about it, but we'll think about it all the same."

"yes, we'd keep it to ourselves. but if a nigger angel beats a white angel flying, there'll be trouble, won't there?"

"there won't be anything of that. god won't let the nigger angels out-fly the white ones."

there came a tap at the door—a house-maid come to tell us that if we did not stop talking old miss would come in and whip us. we whispered and giggled a long time, and then bob fell asleep, and i lay there thinking of the white roses that had scented the parlor. it must have been very late for the lights were out everywhere, when i heard voices on the walk just below my window. i looked out cautiously and in the moonlight i saw old master and dr. george bates. master was walking up and down, but the doctor stood still.

"i want you to understand this," said the old man. "you are at perfect liberty to stay here as long as you[pg 28] choose—and i will feed you and clothe you, but you must have nothing whatever to say about the running of my affairs. you are constantly meddling with things that don't concern you."

"general, it is not my intention to interfere, i assure you."

"but you do," said old master, making an emphatic motion. "you seem to think that i ought to divide my property with you. get that out of your head as soon as you can."

"it has never been in my head, general. i merely suggested that if you would give me dan i would take him and go south."

"give you dan! confound it, haven't i told you that he belongs to bob?"

"yes, but i didn't know but you gave him away just as a man sometimes gives a colt to a boy—merely to claim."

"i don't give things that way, sir."

"i know, but your wife—"

"there, that will do."

"she said that she thought that you might be induced—"

"didn't i say that would do?"

"yes, sir, but let me finish, if you please. of course[pg 29] you know that my wife's share, whatever it may amount to, will fall to me?"

"yes, if i so desire it, sir."

"but i know you well enough to feel that you won't refuse me."

"now you are presuming upon my kindness, sir."

"no, sir; i am paying a tribute to your sense of justice. and now this is what i have agreed to do: to take dan and wait until you are ready—"

"you have agreed with whom, sir?" old master broke in.

"oh, i don't know that it was exactly an agreement. i had a talk with your wife, and—"

"infamous puppy!" old master cried, shaking his fist in the doctor's face. "didn't i tell you that you'd gone far enough in that direction?"

"general," said the doctor, stepping back, "you have insulted me."

old master snorted. "oh, i have insulted you, have i? then i have done something that i thought must be impossible. listen to me. you came here a beggar, with a doctor's sheep-skin under your arm; you are of a good family—that i will not deny. but i say you came a beggar, and you won my child—how, god only knows. you told me that you would [pg 30]practice medicine on the plantation after you were married, but did you?"

"why, yes, sir; i have attended many a case. you know one very well."

"oh, you have? did you get out of bed when they sent for you one night to see old aunt mag? didn't you complain that you were too sick to get up? and that very night, sir, didn't you slip away and play poker over the creek?"

"somebody has lied about me," the doctor declared.

"i admit, sir, that lying has been done, but you did it."

"general, i insist that you must not talk to me this way. i'm no dog."

"if you were, sir, i would be more considerate of you."

"keep on and you'll say something that you may regret."

just at that moment old master had turned to walk down the path, but he wheeled about. "what's that? say something that i may regret? i don't know about that, sir, but i may say something that you'll regret. i may tell you to get off this place, and i won't regret it, but you will."

"that would be a scandal, general."

[pg 31]

"yes, a disgrace—to you." the old man walked down the path, tall and gaunt in the moon-light. he turned, and coming back, stepping slowly, he said: "but it is our duty to avoid anything in the nature of a rupture. so now, i'll tell you what i'll agree to do. i will give you sam and money enough to go south, and when the time comes to divide the estate, you shall have your share. now, i ask you if that is not fair?"

"yes, general, it is perfectly fair, but—"

"but what, sir?" master snapped impatiently.

"but i don't want sam. i want dan—want to make a race rider of him."

"what good will a race rider do you? you've got no horses."

"i can get the horses."

"but you can't get dan, sir, so let the matter rest. bates, i don't want to get mad, and i should think, sir, that in the light of our recent affliction—"

"i understand, general, and we'll let the subject drop, but if bob should agree—"

"stop, there, sir. bob is not old enough to entertain a business proposition." for a time the old man walked up and down, with his hands behind him and then turned upon the doctor. "i believe, sir, that you are an evil-minded man. for a long time i thought[pg 32] that your laziness was an indication of good nature—the lazy dog is rarely vicious—but now i am of the opinion that you have an active quality, that of rascality, sir."

"general," said the doctor, "i can't stand everything. you forget, sir, that i am a gentleman."

"oh, do i forget it?" the old man spoke up. "there is a difference between forgetting a thing and never having known it. bates, i have endeavored to like you, i have striven to crush what i hoped was merely a prejudice, but i can't. i don't think that we have ever held an agreeable conversation. there is something about you that antagonizes me. when you are away i am determined to like you, but when you come back, i find that my resolve is weak. i don't want to drive you off—i would stand most anything rather than face a neighborhood scandal, but don't you think that it would be a good idea for you to go away and stay away for a long time? i say, don't you?"

"you can drive me off, sir."

"ah, the very thing you want me to do—you want to put my name into the mouths of the gossipers."

"general, you have called me a scoundrel and now you are trying to prove it. i can stand a great deal, but i can't put up with everything—even from you. i[pg 33] have told you that i am a gentleman, and while a gentleman respects age, he cannot permit age to humiliate him. i know that you've got nerve enough to shoot a man who rides into your room—"

"another word of that, bates, and i will knock you down."

"you have gone too far," bates replied in a tone that made me shiver. the moon shone upon his half upturned face and i fancied that i saw the glitter of his evil eyes. master, who was now standing some distance from him said something which i did not catch and bates, with his hand upraised, made a stride toward him. at my elbow, on a stand near the window, was a heavy glass tumbler. indeed, i had long held it in my hand, and when bates strode forward, i threw the tumbler with all my might. i heard it strike, and leaning out, i saw the doctor lying on the ground. i heard old master shout for a light, and now thoroughly frightened. i ran to my lounge and lay there with the cover drawn over my head.