A sudden recollection quickened my pace--in the terms of the law I was a vagrant, and what, if the Chadbourn official should change his mind about letting me go. This was a phase of the case I had not considered before, being a vagrant, and darkness had settled down, and I had been silently walking along the pathway of the track for some time, when my melancholy musings were suddenly put to flight. A quarter of a mile ahead a light was shining. "Some farm-house built near the railroad," I speculated; "wonder if they'll give me shelter." Drawing nearer, I discovered my mistake. The light was issuing from the windows of a small store. A large railroad board in front of the place told me I had reached the town of Grice--containing three or four small dwellings, one store and a town pump; the place is hardly on the map, though it was a boon to me just now. On entering the store I was surprised to find a good number of people trading, notwithstanding the fact it was Sunday. Several darkies were in the place, and calling one of them outside, we headed for the pump. "Been hoboing?" asked the darkey, beginning to pump water for me to wash. "Yes," I replied, not relishing his familiarity, "I'm going down to Florida." Now its a fact, though not generally known, that between South Carolina and Florida, both being warm sections, a good many of the colored gentry are continually traveling back and forth the year round, but very little, if any, of this migration reaches up to North Carolina or Virginia. "I'm going South myself to-night," said the darkey. "Can't I go along with you?" My ablutions ceased. "Say that over again, my man. Did you want to go with me, you say?" He was a large, powerfully built fellow, with a face calculated to give a timid man chills, and that the suggestion frightened me, I must admit, for suppose he attacked me during the night, thinking I had money with me. Creepy sensations began to steal over me, and yet it will be better than being alone, I thought. "I know the ropes pretty well, young feller," he added. This settled it, for I did not know the "ropes," as he expressed it. "You may go with me," I said. I was dying for some kind of companionship, and being the possessor of unusually good strength myself, as a result of years of physical culture, I saw no serious cause for fearing my formidable looking companion, providing I could keep awake during the night, so, purchasing a bite to eat at the store and some smoking tobacco for my colored friend, we began to discuss a plan of action. "We'll have to go back to Chadbourn and lay for a late freight to-night," said he, "for the trains seldom stop in Grice." I was afraid the authorities of the town would nab me, but he only laughed at my timidity.