"Don't feel so, Pomp," said his master, very kindly. "You did the best you could; no one blames you."
"I knows you doant, massa—I knows you doant, and you'se bery good nottur—but oh! massa, de Lord!" and his body swayed to and fro with the great grief; "I fears de Lord do, massa, for I'se sent har ter Him wid har own blood, and de blood of dat pore innercent chile, on har hands. Oh, I fears de Lord neber'll forgib me—neber'll forgib me for dat."
"He will, my good Pomp—He will!" said the Colonel, laying his hand tenderly on the old man's shoulder. "The Lord will forgive you, for the sake of the Christian example you've set your master, if for nothing else;" and here the proud, strong man's feelings overpowering him, his tears fell in great drops on the breast of the old slave, as they had fallen there in his childhood.
Such scenes are not for the eye of a stranger, and turning away, I left the room.
CHAPTER XVI.
"ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE."
The family met at the breakfast-table at the usual hour on the following morning; but I noticed that Jim was not in his accustomed place behind the Colonel's chair. That gentleman exhibited his usual good spirits, but Madam P—— looked sad and anxious, and I had not forgotten the scene of the previous evening.
While we were seated at the meal, the negro Junius hastily entered the room, and in an excited manner exclaimed:
"Oh, massa, massa, you muss cum ter de cabin—Jim hab draw'd his knife, and he swar he'll kill de fuss 'un dat touch him!"