Dick did not insist, because he knew it was useless.  The colonel would have obliged his son in any other matter, but his negroes were the outward and visible sign of his wealth and station, and therefore sacred to him.

“Whom do you think it safe to take?” asked Dick.  “I suppose I ’ll have to have a body-servant.”

“What ’s the matter with Grandison?” suggested the colonel.  “He ’s handy enough, and I reckon we can trust him.  He ’s too fond of good eating, to risk losing his regular meals; besides, he ’s sweet on your mother’s maid, Betty, and I ’ve promised to let ’em get married before long.  I ’ll have Grandison up, and we ’ll talk to him.  Here, you boy Jack,” called the colonel to a yellow youth in the next room who was catching flies and pulling their wings off to pass the time, “go down to the barn and tell Grandison to come here.”

“Grandison,” said the colonel, when the negro stood before him, hat in hand.

“Yas, marster.”

“Have n’t I always treated you right?”

“Yas, marster.”

“Have n’t you always got all you wanted to eat?”

“Yas, marster.”

“And as much whiskey and tobacco as was good for you, Grandison?”

“Y-a-s, marster.”

“I should just like to know, Grandison, whether you don’t think yourself a great deal better off than those poor free negroes down by the plank road, with no kind master to look after them and no mistress to give them medicine when they ’re sick and—­and”——­

“Well, I sh’d jes’ reckon I is better off, suh, dan dem low-down free niggers, suh!  Ef anybody ax ’em who dey b’long ter, dey has ter say nobody, er e’se lie erbout it.  Anybody ax me who I b’longs ter, I ain’ got no ‘casion ter be shame’ ter tell ’em, no, suh, ‘deed I ain’, suh!”

The colonel was beaming.  This was true gratitude, and his feudal heart thrilled at such appreciative homage.  What cold-blooded, heartless monsters they were who would break up this blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand, of wise subordination and loyal dependence on the other!  The colonel always became indignant at the mere thought of such wickedness.

“Grandison,” the colonel continued, “your young master Dick is going North for a few weeks, and I am thinking of letting him take you along.  I shall send you on this trip, Grandison, in order that you may take care of your young master.  He will need some one to wait on him, and no one can ever do it so well as one of the boys brought up with him on the old plantation.  I am going to trust him in your hands, and I ’m sure you ’ll do your duty faithfully, and bring him back home safe and sound—­to old Kentucky.”

Grandison grinned.  “Oh yas, marster, I ’ll take keer er young Mars Dick.”