'What luck in Virginny? Did you do it, massa Robert?'
'No,' said Preston, 'I couldn't get a dollar--not a dollar, Joe.'
'I feared dat--I feared dat, massa Robert. Nobody keer nuffin' fur you but ole Joe--nobody but ole Joe, massa Robert!' His eyes moistened, and he spoke in an inexpressibly tender tone--the tone of a mother when speaking to her child.
'Nobody but Mr. Kirke, Joe. He has paid the judgment.'
'Bress you, Mr. Kirke, de Lord bress you, sar. But dar's more you knows, massa Robert. You tole Mr. Kirke 'bout dem?'
'No, Joe. I know I ought to; but I couldn't.
'P'raps Mr. Kirke wouldn't hab paid dat, if he'd know'd de whole!' said Joe, in a hesitating tone.
'Undoubtedly I would, Joe. It's no great matter, I'm sure,' I replied.
'Well, Joe, never mind this now. We'll talk affairs all over with Mr. Kirke before he goes,' said Preston.
'Dat's right, massa Robert; gemman like Mr. Kirke knows 'bout dese tings better'n you nor me.'
Saying we would see him again that day, Preston and I then reëntered the mansion.
[Footnote 4: This transaction, improbable as it may seem to Northern readers, occurred literally as I have narrated it.--The AUTHOR.]
There's not a trade agoing, Worth knowing or showing, Like that from glory growing! Says the bold soldier boy.
A question of great magnitude, concerning the fate of vast numbers of freed men in the South, and affecting material interests of world-wide importance, is looming up and shaping itself among the clouds which surround us, and is daily growing more pressing in its demand for solution, and for wise and beneficent action. The entire social and industrial arrangements of the South are likely to be completely disorganized, and more or less permanently broken up. The civil war itself, in its very nature, from its avowed principles and purposes, was well calculated to produce this result; but the proclamation of the President, declaring emancipation after the 1st of January next, in all the rebellious States, comes in at this critical moment speedily to perfect the work which the madness of the rebels had already begun.
We do not propose to consider the legal effect of that measure; its conformity to the Constitution, or to the laws of war; its necessity and propriety under existing circumstances; or its bearing and probable influence on the duration of the war and the ultimate restoration of the Union. It would be worse than useless to embarrass and cripple ourselves with these questions, at the present time, when it is wholly beyond our power to arrest the march of events, and prevent the consummation to which they inevitably tend. The thunderbolt has been launched; and although it pauses in the air or moves slowly in its ominous path, it has been seen of all men, and cannot be effectually recalled. Its inevitable results are already to a great extent secured. The idea of his liberation has been imparted to the slave, and it takes hold of his mind as a spark would adhere to dry wood in a high wind. Every breath of air causes it to spread; it cannot be extinguished.