"Hallo, Snowball! What are you doing so far out of the world?"
"Sarvent, sar. Well, sar, you see all dis timber here? My moster is needin' some rail timber mighty bad, so he sends me out here every Monday and I stays here until Saturday. Say, boss, what you doin' out here? Ise you los'?"
"You haven't seen a gray horse, with saddle and bridle on, going by here, have you?" asked Tom in reply.
"No, sar, I aint. Did he threw you?"
"Nor any hounds giving tongue?"
"No, sar, I aint. Ise dey de ones you is lookin' for, boss?"
"They're gone, and the best thing I can do is to follow after them on foot," said Tom, looking around for a handy log to sit down on; for, now that his tramp for the day was ended and he had somebody to talk to, he began to realize that he was tired. "I believe I'll camp with you to-night."
"Sarvent, sar. Cert'n'y, sar. Whar might you uns come from?"
"I came from the country about General Mason's place. Have you got anything to eat?"
"Oh, yes, sar. Plenty of it, sar," said the negro, sticking his axe into the log he was chopping and leading the way off through the bushes. "Dis way, sar. I's often heared of folks up your way. Somebody up that a-way been a-stealin' five thousand dollars."