The word ran like wildfire from mouth to mouth that Little Lizay, the famous picker, had fallen behind, and was to be flogged—­by the overseer, some said—­by Big Sam, others declared.  But Edny Ann reckoned the cowhiding was to be done by Alston.

“An’ her dersarves it, kase her’s a big fool,” said Edny Ann, “hangin’ roun’ him, an’ patchin’ his cloze like her wus morred ter ‘im—­an’ washin’ his shut an’ britches ev’ry Saddy night.”

All the hands were required to stop after the weighing and witness the floggings, as a warning to themselves and an enhancement of punishment to the convicts.  There was but little shrinking from the sight.  Human nature is everywhere much the same:  cruel spectacles brutalize, whether in Spain or on a negro-plantation.  But to-night there was a new sensation:  the slaves were on the qui vive to see Little Lizay flogged, and to find out whose hand was to wield the whip.

“Now hurry up yere, yer lazy raskels! an’ git yer floggin’,” Mr. Buck said when the weighing was over.

From right and left and front and rear negroes came forward and stood, a motley group, before the one white man.  It was a weird spectacle that did not seem to belong to our earth.  Black faces, heads above heads, crowded at the doorway—­some solemn and sympathetic, others grinning in anticipation of the show.  Negroes were perched on the gin and in the corners of the loft where the cotton was heaped.  Others lay at full length close to the field of action.  In every direction the dusky figures dotted the cotton lying on every hand about the little cleared space where the flogging and weighing were done.  In a close bunch stood the shrinking, cowering convicts, some with heads white as the cotton all about them.  Mr. Buck, the most picturesque figure of the whole, was laying off his coat and baring his arm, standing under the solitary lamp depending from the rafters, whose faint light served to give to all the scene an indefinite supernatural aspect.

“Now, come out yere,” said Mr. Buck, moving from under the grease-lamp and calling for volunteers.

One by one the negroes came forward and bared themselves to the waist—­children, strong men and old women.  And then there was shrieking and wailing, begging and praying:  it was like a leaf out of hell.

Little Lizay was among the first of the condemned to present herself, for she felt an intolerable suspense as to what awaited her.  The vague terror in her face was discerned by the dim light.

As she stepped forward Mr. Buck called out, “Als’on!”

“Yes, moster,” Alston answered.

“What yer sneakin’ in that thar’ corner fer?  Come up yere, you—­” but his vile sentence shall not be finished here.

Alston came forward with a statuesque face.

“Take this rawhide,” was the order he received.

He put out his hand, and then, suddenly realizing the requisition that was to be made on him, realizing that he was to flog Little Lizay, his confidante and sympathizing friend, his hand dropped cold and limp.