“Dey do say,” said Sallie Tom, taking her pipe surreptitiously from the depth of her bottomless pocket, and lighting it with a coal from the hearth, “dey do say dat de Doctor done walk de flo’ all night long when Mars’ Bobbie come over and axed for Miss Dorothy, jis as if he didn’t kno’ dat it had to come; every nigger on the place know’d it was gwine to end dat way, and tain’t no use fur de Doctor to say he didn’t spec it so suddin’; tain’t nothin’ suddin’ bout it. Dey been a loving’ one another ever sence dey been born, ever sence his nose got broke. Miss Dorothy is mighty nice, but she ought to thank her Gord A’mighty every day that our Mars’ Bobbie luv her,” and Sallie Tom kicked the ashes together on the hearth and gave a little grunt, puffing vigorously at her pipe meanwhile. “He sutny do luv her,” said Peter Black, leaning back in his chair and clasping his knees between his hands, “ain’t no mistake about dat, and dere ain’t goin’ to be no foolin’ ’bout gittin’ married if he kin hep it, but the Doctor say he cayn’t let Miss Dorothy go way from home yit. She ain’t quite turn eighteen, and Mars’ Bobbie he ain’t been long cum twenty-one, and de Doctor say dere’s plenty time yit. It don’t mek much difference to me,” he went on after a pause, “jis so dey stay home and don’t go flyin’ all roun’ de worl’ enny mo’. I’m glad dey is gwine to git married, but I do want de marsa to be home a little bit by hissef fust. ’Pears like I ain’t seen him good yit.” “You’re right,” grunted Sallie Tom, between the puffs, “ain’t hardly cotch a good look at him mysef, do’ he did come heah de night he got home an ax me fur his buttermilk and hoecake, same ez what he use’ to do, and sat over dere in de corner, like what he allus bin a doin’ sence he wuz a baby; de Lord a-bless him!” And Sallie Tom wrapped her head up in her big apron and rocked back and forth, quite overcome by the flood of recollections called up by his presence at home again. It had been the sorest trial in the lives of Sallie Tom and Peter Black, this going away of Bobbie, and now that he was back, unspeakable joy reigned supreme in the breasts of each. During the years at college, Peter Black had acted as dining-room boy, helping the butler, who was getting rather old, but he had been immediately reinstalled in his old position on Bobbie’s return, and his love and allegiance to his young master was greater than ever before. It was in the summer of sixty (’60) that Bobbie got his degree at college and the promise of Dorothy to be his wife, and while much gayety and pleasure filled up the measure of many days, other and more weighty subjects began to fill the air, and caused many long and serious discussions among the men of the neighborhood, old and young alike, and by the fall the one absorbing topic among all classes was the terrible possibility of war.