The democrats, after that defeat, always passed the second district by and Bernard held his seat in Congress from year to year unmolested.  He made application and was admitted to plead law before the Supreme Court of the United States.  And when we shall see him again it will be there, pleading in one of the most remarkable cases known to jurisprudence.

CHAPTER X.

Cupid again at work.

Belton, after graduating from Stowe University, returned with his mother to their humble home at Winchester.  He had been away at school for four years and now desired to see his home again before going forth into the world.

He remained at Winchester several days visiting all the spots where he had toiled or played, mourned or sung, wept or laughed as a child.  He entered the old school house and gazed with eyes of love on its twisting walls, decaying floor and benches sadly in need of repair.  A somewhat mournful smile played upon his lips as he thought of the revengeful act that he had perpetrated upon his first teacher, Mr. Leonard, and this smile died away into a more sober expression as he remembered how his act of revenge had, like chickens, come home to roost, when those dirty socks had made him an object of laughter at Stowe University on commencement day.

Revenge was dead in his bosom.  And it was well for the world that this young negro had been trained in a school where there was a friendly lance to open his veins and let out this most virulent of poisons.

Belton lingered about home, thinking of the great problem of human life.  He would walk out of town near sunset and, taking his seat on some grassy knoll would gaze on the Blue Ridge mountains.  The light would fade out of the sky and the gloom of evening gather, but the mountains would maintain their same bold appearance.  Whenever he cast his eyes in their direction, there they stood firm and immovable.

His pure and lofty soul had an affinity for all things grand and he was always happy, even from childhood, when he could sit undisturbed and gaze at the mountains, huge and lofty, rising in such unconquerable grandeur, upward toward the sky.  Belton chose the mountain as the emblem of his life and he besought God to make him such in the moral world.

At length he tore himself loose from the scenes of his childhood, and embracing his fond mother, left Winchester to begin life in the city of Richmond, the capital of the old Confederacy.  Through the influence of Mr. King, his benefactor, he secured a position as a teacher in one of the colored schools of that city.

The principal of the school to which Belton was assigned was white, but all the rest of the teachers were young colored women.  On the morning of his arrival at the school building Belton was taken in charge by the principal, and by him was carried around to be introduced to the various teachers.  Before he reaches a certain room, let us give you a slight introduction to the occupant thereof.