Hearing of the warrant, the boy ran away. In about three weeks he returned, very defiant, and boasting that no white man could arrest him. He had been to the Bureau, and knew the law; he was armed, and meant to go where he pleased. But he was promptly taken, without resistance, before a justice of the peace. Three negro witnesses conclusively established his guilt, and he was committed to jail to await a trial by court, with every prospect of being sent to the penitentiary for a year or two. Among the witnesses against him was one of the men he had threatened to shoot. When Philos was being locked up he called to this man and said:
“Arthur, you know I’s allus hated you, and talked ’bout you; but you was right, when you tole me not to git into no sich troubles as dis.”
“Philos,” ejaculated Arthur, precipitating his words out in shotted volleys, “I allus tole you so. You said, when you come back, dat you’d been to de Bureau—know’d de law—dat no white man could arrest you. I tole you den you didn’t know nuffin ’bout law—dat no law ’lowed you to carry on mean.”
“Well, I t’ought I did know sumfin ’bout law, den, but I shore, now, I don’t.”
“Dat’s so, Philos; but I tell ye, you’m got in a mighty safe place now, whar you’m got nuffin in de wo’ld to do but to study law! Reckon, Philos, by de time you git out you’ll be mighty larned nigger ’bout de law! Good-bye, Philos.”
“The worst thing about these niggers,” explained the justice, “is that they seem to have no conception of their responsibility. That boy, Philos, can’t see why a word from his employer isn’t enough now to release him, as it would have done while he was a slave. He doesn’t comprehend the fact that he has committed an offense against the State, as well as against his master.”
“Tol’able well, myself, but I’m not well contented,” replied one of the best plowmen in the gang, on another plantation, which I visited in March, to the inquiry of the young Northern proprietor, as to how he was getting along.
“Why, what’s the matter, Stephen?”
“Sah, I tell you de trufe, I don’t git enuff to eat. Matter enuff, dat is, for a man as works hard all day long.”