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help; and he got a little worse and a little worse, and after a long time he went

out of his head, and wouldn't let me come anigh him, any more, and said if I

chalked his raft he'd kill me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see

I couldn't do anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have help, somehow;

and the minute I says it, out crawls this nigger from somewheres, and says he'll

help, and he done it, too, and done it ssssssssss

very well. Of course I judged he ssssssssss

must be a runaway nigger, and there ssssssssss

I was! and there I had to stick, right ssssssssss

straight along all the rest of the day, ssssssssss

and all night. It was a fix, I tell ssssssssss

you! I had a couple of patients with ssssssssss

the chills, and of course I'd of liked ssssssssss

to run up to town and see them, but ssssssssss

I dasn't, because the nigger might get ssssssssss

away, and then I'd be to blame; and ssssssssss

yet never a skiff come close enough ssssssssss

for me to hail. So there I had to ssssssssss

stick, plumb till daylight this morn- ssssssssss

ing; and I never see a nigger that ssssssssss

was a better nuss or faithfuller, and ssssssssss

yet he was resking his freedom to do ssssssssss

it, and was all tired out, too, and I ssssssssss

see plain enough he'd been worked ssssssssss

main hard, lately. I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a nigger

like that is worth a thousand dollars -- and kind treatment, too. I had every-

thing I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he would a done at home

-- better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I was, with both of 'm on my

hands; and there I had to stick, till about dawn this morning; then some men

in a skiff come by, and as good luck would have it, the nigger was setting by the

pallet with his head propped on his knees, sound asleep; so I motioned them in,

quiet, and they slipped up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he

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