"Humph! Well, it's dog gone strange."
At this moment the two boys, with Dinah in attendance, came out, bearing between them little Irene.
"Here it is; here is our baby! Ain't she sweet, though?" cried Oleah, as they bore their precious burden toward the mountaineer.
"Why it's a spankin' big un, by jingo! Ya-as, an' I be blessed ef I ain't seen that baby before," cried Uncle Dan.
"Where?" asked Mr. Tompkins, eagerly.
Uncle Dan took the little thing on his lap, and, as it turned its large dark-gray eyes up to his in wonder, he reflected a few minutes in silence and then said:
"I saw a baby what looked like this, and I'll bet a good deal it is the same one, too."
"Where did you see it?" again demanded the planter.
"That's jest what I'm tryin' to think up," said Uncle Dan. "Oh, yes; it war in the free nigger's cabin, on the side o' the east Twin Mountain. You know where the old cabin stands, where we used to camp when we war out huntin'!"