The Colonel, at the allusion to their relationship, started as if shot, and turning furiously on the negro, yelled out:  ’I’ll shoot you for that, you d—­d nigger, by——.’

’It ’pears ter me, Cunnel, ye’ve hed ‘bout nuff shootin’ ’round har, lately; better stop thet sort o’ bis’ness; it moight give ye a sore throat,’ said the long, lean, loose-jointed stump-speaker of the previous Sunday, as he entered the cabin and strode directly up to my host.

‘What brought you here, you d—­d insolent hound?’ cried the Colonel, turning fiercely on the new-comer.

’Wal, I cum to du ye a naboorly turn—­I’ve kotched two on yer niggers down ter my still, an’ I want ye ter take ’em ‘way,’ returned the corn-cracker, with the utmost coolness.

‘Two of my niggers!’ exclaimed the Colonel, perceptibly moderating his tone, ‘which ones?’

‘A yaller gal, and a child.’

‘I thank you, Barnes; excuse my hard words—­I was excited.’

’All right, Cunnel; say no more ’bout thet.  Will ye send fur ’em?  I’d hev fotched ’em ‘long, but my waggin’s off jest now.’

‘Yes, I’ll send at once.  Have you got them safe?’

’Safe?  I reckon so!  Kotched ’em las’ night, arter dark, and they’ve kept right still ever sense, I ‘sure ye—­but th’ gal holes on ter th’ young ’un ter kill—­we couldn’t get it ‘way no how.’

‘How did you catch them?’

‘The’ got ‘gainst my turpentime raft—­th’ current driv ’em down, I s’pose.’

‘What! are they dead?’ exclaimed the Colonel.

‘Dead?  Deader’n drownded rats!’ was the native’s reply.

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

     ’Do but grasp into the thick of human life!  Every one lives
     it—­to not many is it known; and seize it where you will, it is
     interesting.’—­Goethe.

     ’SUCCESSFUL.—­Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or
     intended.’—­Webster’s Dictionary.

CHAPTER III.

     The people are anxious for the detail of sentiments, not for
     general results.’—­Lamartine.

Hiram exhibited almost from his boyhood a fondness for female society.  Even when at the district-school, he preferred spending ‘noon-time’ among the girls to racing around with the boys, pitching quoits, wrestling at ‘arm’s-end,’ ‘back-hold,’ or playing base-ball and goal.  His mother was careful to encourage Hiram’s predilections.  She remarked that nothing was so well calculated to keep a young man from going astray as for him to frequent the society of virtuous females.

Before Hiram had got into his teens, he appeared to be smitten with at least half a score of little girls of his own age.  As he grew older, his fondness for the sex increased.  I do not record this, as any thing extraordinary, except that in his case a characteristic selfishness seemed to be at the bottom even of these manifestations.  Hiram was not influenced by those natural emotions and impulses which belong to youth, and which, unless kept under proper restraint, are apt frequently to lead to indiscretions.  For there ran a vein of calculation through all he did, whose prudent office it was to minister to his safety.