"I should think, when so many negroes are running away, you would want to get your freedom, for fear they would sell you down South." "I told my master I would always stay with him, and so he has promised to give me the tools." "I should think you would like to be where you could live with your wife." "Yes, I would, sir; but they don't think of a man's feelings here. We ain't no more than their stock, sir! They abuse us, 'cause they's got the power." "You have some money, haven't you, uncle?" "Yes, I'se got about three hundred dollars. About fifty dollars is Southern confederate money. I'se mighty oneasy about that. 'Fraid I shall lose it. The rest is in Virginia bank notes. I'se been saving it this long while." "Don't you find it rather hard times?" "Mighty hard, sir. Hain't had no sugar nor coffee this long while. One of your soldiers gave me a spoonful of sugar yesterday. You'se got a mighty fine army, sir. There's more good clothes in one regiment that went by yesterday, than in the entire Southern army." "Then you have seen the Southern army?" "O yes, General Walker's division went down a week ago to-day, and Longstreet went down a week ago day before yesterday." This was important information, for all of my previous inquiries of white residents upon the matter, had brought only unsatisfactory replies. "Walker's division, you say, wasn't very well clothed?" "No, sir; they was miserably clothed. Lots on 'em was barefoot. One on 'em offered me six dollars for these ere shoes I'se got on, and I pitied him so, I was a good mind to let him have 'em; then I thought may be I couldn't get another pair. I was 'fraid he would suffer." "I should think, uncle, you would be lonesome here, nights." "O, I'se got used to it. It was kind of lonesome, at first, but I don't have anybody to trouble me, and so I gets along first-rate." While he shaped the shoes and fastened them upon the feet of the horse with a dexterity equal to that of any New England blacksmith, I fell into revery. There was the smith--stout, hale, hearty, earning a handsome fortune for his master--robbed of his wages, of his wife, his children, less cared for than the dumb beasts seeking the shelter of the stables in the storm,--a human being with a soul to be saved, with capabilities of immortal life, of glory unspeakable with the angels, with Jesus, God, and all the society of heaven, and yet, in the estimation of every white man in the slave states and one-half of the population of the free states, he has no rights which a white man is bound to respect! Men forget that justice is the mightiest power in the universe. There is judgment for every crime, and retribution for every wrong. The wheels of justice never stand still, but turn forever. Therefore there are vacant places by many firesides, and aching voids in many a heart, and wounds which time can never heal. REMOVAL OF GENERAL McLELLAN.