Bricks Without Straw

nder, when he was discharged at a post near his old home. On the next day it happened that there was a sale of some of the transportation at this post, and throug

er comrades. He had hardly more than assured himself of the safety of his wife and children before he we

and a well-stocked plantation and plenty ob hands, I didn't hab no fear o' being a burden to him. I knew he would get good pay fer my support, fer I did de shoemakin' fer his people, and made a good many clo'es fer dem too. Thanks to Miss Hester's care, I had learned to use my n

obody to wait on Miss Hester, only as he hires a nuss; his little boy is to take keer on, an' he with only one arm an' jest a bare plantation with scarcely any stock left to him. It comes hard fer me to eat

have wuk done; nebber do it theirselves; you know dat; an' ef we does it now we's boun' ter hev pay fer it. An' when we gits money, you gits wuk. Jes' let Marse Moyne wait till de crap comes off, an' den yer'll make it all squar

d the other, with very lit

t it?" asked Nimbus,

n. Whos

de question I wuz gwine ter ax

n't know. One

ackly now. Dat ar mule b'longs ter

de rest of this year, an' then put in a crap of terbacker next year, an' keep gwine on a wukkin' an' savin', an' yer fortin's made. Ther ai

attested the sincerity of his words. Nimbus took his outstretched hands, held them in his own a mom

l, Bre'er 'Liab.

ket and laid it on the bench where the other sat. 'Liab looked up in surprise

said at length, in amazement.

I tell yer dar wuz

lemnly, "you gib me your word

se Nimbus am a-gwine ter tur

it?" asked

bounty, an' rations too? One time I wuz cut off from de regiment, an' 'ported missin' nigh bout fo' months afo' I managed ter git over ter P

b looked i

s look at what de paymaster writ on dat, ef yer don't b'lieve Nimbus hez hed any luck

spread the aegis of equality over him, such was not the rule in the case of the freedman. Those first legislatures, elected only by the high-minded land-owners of the South, who knew the African, his needs and wants, as no one else could know them, and who have always proclaimed themselves his truest friends, en

ity vanished, and a glow of solemn joy spread over his face. It was the first positive testimony of actual freedom-the first fruits of self-seeking, s

this evidence of prayer fulfilled. His voice was full of tears, and when he said "Amen," and Nimbus rose from his knees and

r what's come ter you dan yer be yerself. It'll do you a power of good-you an' yours-but what good wud it do if a poor crippled feller like me hed it? Not a bit. Jes' git him bread an' meat, Nimbus, dat's all. Oh, de Lord knows what he's 'bout, Nimbus. Mind you dat. He didn't give you all dat money fer

e down ter wuk on de fo'tifications, an' so I neber git it at all. So now, yer see, Bre'er 'Liab, you's gwine ter keep dat 'ere money. I don't feel half safe wid it nohow, till we find out jes what we wants ter do wid it. I 'lows dat we'd better buy

giving him a very formal and peculiarly worded receipt for the money and papers which he received from him. Considering that they had to learn the

eased to be operative, the custom of the white race generally was still to demand the observance of the form, and this demand tended to embitter the dislike of the freedmen for it. At first, almost the entire race refused. After a while the habit of generations began to assert itself. While the more intelligent and better educated of the original stock discarded its use entirely, the others, and the children who had grown up since emancipation, came to use it almost interchangeably with the ordinary form of address. Thus Eliab Hill, always nervously alive to the fact of freedom, never allowed the words to pass his lips after the Surrender, except when talking