“The guard to protect me and my property,” she answered.
“You need no protection; you, being just from the interior, forget that hostilities have ended,” said the major.
“Yes, but he’ll kill the horse—he swore that he would, and I know that he’ll do it.”
“Take your horse, madam,” said he, becoming impatient at her hesitancy, “and don’t be alarmed at the idle talk of a disappointed boy.”
“Major,” said she, “I will not go without protection. I know Jim well, and if you knew him as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk that way; I must have a guard, or my horse will be lost, and all my trouble and expense in coming down here, and my only dependence, gone.”
Turning to the woman and young man at the same time, with that stern expression that his brow sometimes assumes, said he, “Madam, do you really suppose that the power which put down the masters, compelling them to submit at discretion, is not sufficient to control one of their former slaves—an idle, babbling black boy?”
The young man, giving vent to laughter, which he evidently did to disguise his chagrin, replied, “Major, I ain’t going to trouble the horse; she kin have um.” The parties, being assured of this, left the office with better feelings towards each other, we trust, than when they entered.