he had furnished me.  I told him they were not with me.  He growled an oath, threw himself on his horse and left us.  In the evening I found him half drunk and raving like a madman.  He said he would no longer bear with that nigger’s insolence; but would whip him if it cost him his life.  He at length fixed upon a plan for seizing him; and told me that he would go out in the morning, ride along by the side of Harry and talk pleasantly to him, and then, while Harry was attending to him, I was to steal upon him and knock him down, by a blow on the head, from the loaded and heavy handle of my whip.  I was compelled to promise to obey his directions.

The next morning when we got to the field I told Harry of the overseer’s plan, and advised him by all means to be on his guard and watch my motions.  His eye glistened with gratitude.  “Thank you James”, said he, “I’ll take care that you don’t touch me.”

Huckstep came into the field about 10 o’clock.  He rode along by the side of Harry talking and laughing.  I was walking on the other side.  When I saw that Harry’s eye was upon me I aimed a blow at him intending however to miss him.  He evaded the blow and turned fiercely round with his hoe uplifted, threatening to cut down any one who again attempted to strike him.  Huckstep cursed my awkwardness, and told Harry to put down his hoe and came to him.  He refused to do so and swore he would kill the first man who tried to lay hands on him.  The cowardly tyrant shrank away from his enraged bondman, and for two weeks Harry was not again molested.

About the first of September, the overseer had one of his drunken fits.  He made the house literally an earthly hell.  He urged me to drink, quarrelled and swore at me for declining, and chased the old woman round the house, with his bottle of peach brandy.  He then told me that Harry had forgotten the attempt to seize him, and that is the morning we must try our old game over again.

On the following morning, as I was handing to each of the hands their hoes from the tool house, I caught Harry’s eye.  “Look out,” said I to him.  “Huckstep will be after you again to day.”  He uttered a deep curse against the overseer and passed on to his work.  After breakfast Huckstep came riding out to the cotton field.  He tied his horse to a tree, and came towards us.  His sallow and haggard countenance was flushed, and his step unsteady.  He came up by the side of Harry and began talking about the crops and the weather; I came at the same time on the other side, and in striking at him, beat off his hat.  He sprang aside and stepped backwards.  Huckstep with a dreadful oath commanded him to stop, saying that he had determined to whip him, and neither earth nor hell should prevent him.  Harry defied him:  and said he had always done the work allotted to him and that was enough:  he would sooner die than have the accursed lash touch him.  The overseer staggered to his horse, mounted him and rode furiously to the house, and soon made his appearance, returning, with his gun in his hand.