Mass' George

"Yes, sir."

"And you say that several of the gentlemen have been buying?"

"Yes, sir; that's right," said Morgan, "and the blacks are put to work in their plantations."

My father frowned and walked away, while I eagerly turned to Morgan for an explanation.

"Oh, it's all right enough, sir, what I tell you," said Morgan; "and seems to me they're right, so long as they treat 'em well. Here's lots of land wants clearing and planting, and one pair of hands can't do it, of course, and there's no men to be hired out here, so the gentlemen have been buying slaves."

"What a shame!" I cried. "How would you like to be bought for a slave?"

Morgan looked at me, then at the sky, then down at the ground; then away straight before him, as he took off his hat and scratched one ear.

"Humph!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, suddenly; "that's a puzzler, Master George. Do you know I never thought of that."

"It seems to me horribly cruel."

"But then, you see, Master George, they're blacks, and that makes all the difference."

I could not see it, but I did not say so, and by degrees other things took my attention. There was so much to see, and hear, and do, that I forgot all about Indians and blacks; or if they did come to mind at all as time went on, I merely gave them a pa.s.sing thought, and went off to talk to Morgan, to set a trap, to fish, or to watch the beautiful birds that came into the sunny clearing about my home.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"There," said Morgan, one day, as he gave the soil a final pat with his spade, "that job's done, and now I'm going to have a bit of a rest.

Leaving-off time till the sun gets a bit down."

"What have you been planting?" I asked.

"Seeds, my lad; flower seeds, as I've picked myself. I like to keep raising the useful things, but we may as well have

"Indoors, writing."

"Then what do you say to a bit of sport?"

"Another rattlesnake?" I cried.

"No, thank ye, my lad; meddling with rattlesnakes may mean bringing down the Indians, so we'll let them alone."

"Nonsense!"

"Well, perhaps it is, my lad."

"But what have you found?"

"What do you say to a 'c.o.o.n?"

"Oh, they get into the hollow trees, where you can't catch them."

"Well then, a bear?"

"A bear!" I cried; "a real wild bear?"

"Ah, I thought that would set you off; but it arn't a bear; they're up among the hills."

"What is it then? How you do hang back from telling!"

"Course I do. If I let you have it all at once, you wouldn't enjoy it half so much."

"Oh, I know," I cried, "it's going to fish after those ridiculous little terrapins, and they're such horrid things to take off the hook."

"Guess again."

"Birds? An eagle?"

"No; guess again, nearly right; something as lays eggs--"

"A turtle?"

Morgan shook his head.

"Not an alligator, is it?"

He wrinkled up his face in a hearty laugh.

"Alligator it is, sir. I found a nest yesterday."

"And didn't tell me. I want to see an alligator's nest. I never could find one."

"Ah, you didn't look in the right kind of tree, Master George."

"Don't talk to me as if I were a baby, Morgan," I said; "just as if I didn't know better than that."

"Oh, but you don't know everything. I got awfully laughed at once for saying squirrels build nests in trees."

"Oh, but they do," I said; "I've seen them."

"'Course you have; but when I said so, some one laughed, and asked how many eggs you can find in a squirrel's nest.--So you don't believe the 'gators build in trees, don't you?"

"No; but I believe they lay eggs. How many are there in this?"

"Oh, it isn't that sort of nest. I mean a nest where he goes to sleep in; and you and me's going to wake him up, and try if we can't catch him and bring him home."

I could not help thinking of the Indians, as I went with Morgan to make the preparations, which were simple enough, and consisted in arming himself with a long pole and giving me one similar, after which he put a piece of rope in his pocket, and declared himself ready.

We went off in the same direction as that chosen when we killed the rattlesnake, but turned off to the left directly, and made for the bank of the river, that bore away from the landing-place, towards a low, moist part, intersected by the meandering stream which drained the marshy part.

Here we had to proceed rather cautiously, for the place was full of decayed trees covered with brilliant green and grey moss, and looking solid, but which crumbled away at a touch from the foot, and often concealed holes into which it would have been awkward to fall, since we did not know what kind of creatures lived therein.