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back of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other side the smoke-

house; one little hut all by itself away down against the back fence, and some out-

buildings down apiece the other side; ash-hopper, and big kettle to bile soap in, by

the little hut; bench by the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound

asleep there, in the sun; more hounds asleep, round about; about three shade-

trees away off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place

by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a water-melon patch; then the

cotton fields begins; and after the fields, the woods.

I went around and dumb over the back stile by the ash-hopper, and started for

the kitchen. When I got a little ways, I heard the dim hum of a spinning-wheel

wailing along up and sinking along down again; and then I knowed for certain

I wished I was dead -- for that is the lonesomest sound in the whole world.

I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting to Provi-

dence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for I'd noticed

that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth, if I left it alone.

When I got half-way, first one hound and then another got up and went for

me, and of course I stopped and faced them, and kept still. And such another

pow-wow as they made! In a quarter of a minute I was a kind of a hub of a

wheel, as you may say -- spokes made out of dogs -- circle of fifteen of them packed

together around me, with their necks and noses stretched up towards me, a bark-

ing and howling; and more a coming; you could see them sailing over fences

and around corners from everywheres. ssssssssss

A nigger woman come tearing out of the kitchen with a rolling-pin in her hand,

singing out, "Begone! you Tige! you Spot! begone, sah!" and she fetched first

one and then another of them a clip and sent him howling, and then the rest fol-

lowed; and the next second, half of them come back, wagging their tails around

me and making friends with me. There ain't no harm in a hound, nohow.

And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger boys,

without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung onto their mother's

gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way they always do.

And here comes the white woman running from the house, about forty-five or fifty

year old, bareheaded, and her spinning-stick in her hand; and behind her comes

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