Now I know my duty, and have sailed in the finest ships and with the best masters in the country.  All I want is proper respect, something to eat, what there is coming to me, and my passage paid back to Charleston by land.  No!  I will not even request so much as that; give me something to eat, and my passage to Charleston, and you may do what you please with the vessel, but I shall deliver the papers to nobody but the persons who shipped me.  And I shall want you to see this little boy attended to, for he’s quite sick now,” said the captain, pointing to Tommy, and calling him to him.

“Oh yes,” replied the young man, “we’ll take care of the little fellow, and see him sent safely back,” and took leave, promising to have another interview in the afternoon.  About twelve o’clock a negro boy came to the vessel with a tin pan covered with a towel, and presenting it to Cesar, for “massa cap’en and buckra boy.”  Cesar brought it aft and set it upon the companion.  It contained some rice, a piece of bacon, corn-cake, and three sweet-potatoes.

“Coarse fare, but I can get along with it.  Come Tommy, I guess you’re hungry, as well as myself,” said the captain, and they sat down, and soon demolished the feast of Southern hospitality.  About five o’clock in the evening, the young man not making his appearance, the Captain sent Tommy ashore to inquire for him at the house, telling him (in order to test their feelings) that he could stop and get his supper.  Tommy clambered ashore, and up the bank wending his way to the house.  The young man made his appearance, offering an apology for his delay and inattention, saying the presence of some very particular friends from Beaufort was the cause.  “My father, you are aware, owns this vessel, captain!—­You got a good dinner, to-day, by-the-by,” said he.

“Yes, we got along with it, but could have eaten more,” rejoined the captain.

“Ah! bless me, that was the nigger’s fault.  These niggers are such uncertain creatures, you must watch ’em over the least thing.  Well now, captain, my father has sent you five dollars to pay your passage to Charleston!”

“Well, that’s a small amount, but I’ll try and get along with it, rather than stop here, at any rate,” said the captain, taking the bill and twisting it into his pocket, and giving particular charges in regard to taking care of the boy.  That night, a little after sundown, he took passage in a downward-bound coaster, bid a long good-by to the Edisto and Colonel Whaley’s plantation, and arrived in Charleston the next night.  On the following morning he presented himself to the agents, who generously paid him, all his demands, and expressed their regrets at the circumstance.  Acting upon the smart of feeling, the captain enclosed the five-dollar bill and returned it to the sovereign Colonel Whaley.