“And he started the town?”

“Yas, sah, in a way.  He fought with Lee, sah, an’ my brother was his body-servant all through the war.  When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came back to the old plantation.  Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was quite a few left still.  He called us to the big house an’ tol’ us to stay by the ol’ place an’ he would pay us wages.  Some—­Ah was not one o’ them, though Ah see now they were right,—­said the quarters were not fit to live in.”

“But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master?  How could that be if the quarters were so bad?”

“No, sah,” he said, “Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was fair an’ ready to help a willin’ worker.  But his slaves was his slaves an’ they had no rights.  Thar wasn’t any whippin’ or any o’ that sort o’ thing, but it was work all day, f’om befo’ daylight till afteh dark, an’ we lived jes’ anyhow.”

“How came he to start the town, then?” queried Hamilton.  “Your description of him doesn’t sound as though he were a man who would do much for you.”

“It was jes’ because o’ that, Ah think, that he did, sah.  He was just, sah.  He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves.  Now that the negro was not a slave any mo’, thar was no reason to make him live like one.  He used to say the South was now pledged to help the nation instead o’ the Confederacy, an’ while he did not agree, he would live up to that pledge.”

“That seems as fair as anything could be.”

“Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it.  Thar was no money in the place, the slaves hadn’ had wages, an’ yo’ can’t build houses without money, an’ money was scarce afteh the war.”

“How in the wide world did you manage it?” asked Hamilton.

“As Ah was sayin’, sah, it was Colonel Egerius’ doin’.  He got a surveyor from the town an’ hunted over the plantation to fin’ the best site fo’ a village,—­the surveyor’s name was Buller.”

“That’s where the town got its name, then?”

“Yas, sah, Ah jes’ wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn’t hear of it.  Then all o’ the ol’ slaves that wanted to stay by the place got together, an’ the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o’ syndicate.  Then he sol’ us the land jes’ as low as it could be made, payment to be in labor on the plantation, so in a few years’ work every man who wanted to stay reg’lar on the job got title to his lan’ an’ his house, an’ took wages afteh that.”

“That was a wise move,” said the boy after a moment’s thought.  “He sold his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the same time fixed it all right for you.”

“Yas, sah,” the old negro answered, “an’ now every man in the town either owns his house or is buyin’ one f’om the syndicate, an’ we have bought up all the surveyed property f’om the Colonel.  Now, sah,” continued the preacher, “if yo’ will excuse me, Ah will see that yo’r supper is got ready.  Hyar, sah,” he added, opening the door into a small room, “is yo’r sittin’ room, an’ yo’r supper will be served hyar.”