And
then I lay beside him, worn out with the stress and agitations of
this long day, and together (strange chance!) we who had been
mortal enemies found repose on the bosom of mother earth.
Night came down upon us, and the stars were blinking in the dark
vault above when we awoke. Uncle Moses brought us food--birds the
negroes had snared and roasted, and root plants they had grubbed
up; and as we ate we talked.
"Bold," said Cludde huskily, "you've returned good for evil. You
don't want my thanks; you hate me."
"I wonder if I do," I said, and pondering the matter, I came to the
conclusion that I rather despised than hated him; but I did not
tell him so. "How did you come to this strait?" I asked him.
"I came up to see Lucy, and happened to arrive just after that
nigger had been caught. Vetch was flogging him, told me he was an
insolent and lazy scoundrel, and I agreed he ought to be taught a
lesson--"
"Even if it killed him," I interrupted.
"Why, he's only a black fellow," said Cludde.
"And black fellows are flesh and blood, like you and me."
"But they haven't our feelings; come now, you won't say that?"
I would not argue with: him, and he went on--"I came to the house,
and Lucy refused to see me. I hated you then, Bold; Vetch told me
that you had been up, and I guessed you had put a spoke in my
wheel."
"I never saw Mistress Lucy," I said.
"What? Why, Vetch told me that you had proposed to her, and been
sent away with a flea in your ear.
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