behind the house, beneath a beautiful bright moon, which saw me that night the most wretched of all negroes in the land of Dixie; and what made me feel, in my own opinion, that my humiliation was just as complete as the triumph of the negroes inside was glorious, was that the gals had turned my pockets out, and found that the hundreds of dollars they had thought my pockets contained, consisted of 24 cents or pennies, and 50 brass buttons.  Everything was alive and happy inside the room, but no one knew or cared how miserable I was—­the joy and life of the dance that night seemed entirely at my expense, all through my unfortunate shirt tail.  The first thing I thought of now was revenge.  Take your comfort, niggers now, said I to myself, for sorrow shall be yours in the morning, so I took out my knife and went round the fence and cut every horse loose, and they all ran away.  I then got on my horse and set off home.  As I rode on I thought to myself—­I only wish I could be somewhere close enough to see how those negroes will act when they come out and find all their horses gone.  And then I laughed right out when I thought of the sport they had had out of my misfortune, and that some were ten to twelve, and some fifteen miles away from home.  Well, thought I, your masters will have to reckon with you to-morrow; you have had glad hearts to-night at my expense, but you will have sore backs to-morrow at your own.  Now, when I got home, the stable was in a very bad situation, and I was afraid to bring my horse in until I could strike a light.  When this was done, I took the saddle and bridle off outside.  No sooner had I done this than my horse reared over the bars and ran away into the meadow.  I chased him till daylight, and for my life I could not catch him.  My feelings now may be better imagined than described.  When the reader remembers that this horse, with all the rest, master had seen clean at six o’clock the night before, and all safe in the stable, and now to see him in the meadow, with all the marks of having been driven somewhere and by somebody, what excuse could I make, or what story could I invent in order to save my poor back from that awful flogging which I knew must be the result of the revelation of the truth.  I studied and tried, but could think of no lie that would stand muster.  At last I went into the stable and turned all the rest out, and left the stable door open, and creeping into the house, took off my fine clothes and put on those which I had been wearing all the week, and laid myself down on my straw.  I had not lain long before I heard master shouting for me, for all those horses, eight in number, were under my care; and although he shouted for me at the top of his voice, I lay still and pretended not to hear him; but soon after I heard a light step coming up stairs, and a rap at my door—­then I commenced to snore as loud as possible, still the knocking continued.  At last I pretended to awake, and called out, who’s there—­that