e habit of body, alert, compact and vigorous, he carried himself with a half-military self- respect, redeemed from aggressiveness by an open candor of face and the pleasant, fo

his carriage was assuredly not that of middle age, and indeed, the total of his personality, neither young nor old, neither callow nor acerb, neither lightly unreserved nor too gravely severe, offered certain problems n

d colored man, who, with a rag in one hand and a bottle in the other, seemed intent upon some errand at the dog kennel beyond, the visitor paused not

ella upon the gallery floor, and with the air of owning the

id Bill. "But you bettah come in an

I'll just walk around a little outside. I

he mostly gits b'ah. I'se right 'spon

s the

oot. He's ouah bestest b'ah-dog, but he got so blame biggoty, las' time he was out, stuck his foot right intoe a b'ah's mouth. Now, Hec's le

oo bad," said the st

r, if Cunnel Blount don't git no

s dander

s, but ef he goes out huntin' b'ah an' don't get no

lount at h

ed. They's two ladies heah, no relation o' him; they done come heah a yeah er so ago, and they- all keeps

w them," sai

now with the Cunnel-why, Mas' 'Cherd he 'lows he knows whah thah's a lady, jus' the thing. Law! Cunnel didn't spec' no real lady, you know, jes' wantin' housekeepah. But long comes this heah lady, Mrs. Ellison, an' brings this heah young lady, too-real quality. 'Miss Lady' we-all calls her, right to once. Orto see Cunnel Cal

hank your friend-what

ugh I had heard that

t me, er the Cunnel. But, law! it don't make no diff'ence to Cunnel Blount who's heah or who ain't heah, he jest gotter hunt b'ah. You come 'long wid me, I co

pecialty of bear, doesn't he?

the railroad kyahs done run ovah a fine colt whut de Cunnel was raisin' fer a saddle hoss-kilt it plumb daid. That riled him a heap. 'Damn the railroad kyahs,' sez

o know him

ount niggers he done took 'long wid him; an' when he gits up to whah de lane crosses de railroad track, ef he come ridin' 'long easy like, now an' den tootin' his haw

d, if he d

to sing 'ligious hymns, somethin's wrong, and somethin' gwine ter drap. He hain't right easy ter git along wid when he's

He sat thus for some time, and the sun was beginning to encroach upon his refuge, when suddenly he was aroused by the faint and far-off sound of a hunting horn. That the listener distinguished it at such a distance might have argued that he himself had known hound and saddle in his day; yet he readily caught the note of the short hunting horn universally used by the southern hunters, and recognized the assembly call for the hunting pack. As

ce. "Han'somest young lady in de hull Delta. Dey'll all be right glad t

imping along on all sides, the music of the summoning horn suddenly ceased. Looking neither to the right nor to the left, the leader of the hunt rode on up the lane, sitting loose and careless in the saddle, his right hand

very wustest chune." Saying which he