“Well, kin I ’speck you, Ezzy?” “Yes’m; erboutin supper time.” Every night Ezra went to see Matilda, and every day, as long as she could get off, Matilda came to see Ezra. The result was, at the end of the week they were married. Ezra never said a word to his Marster about it, and urged her to be silent. She was faithful, dependent and obedient. Ezra told her “he wuz not gwine ter say anything ter his ole Marster tell de day befo’ gwine home, and den his Mars Matthew wud buy huh. Ef’n I say anything rite ’way he mout git rejected, teck me home by mehsef, teck off dis nuniform; mo’n dat, he mout whup me, an’ nebba let me go ter any mo’ shows.” Matilda grew so worried that she cried and cried; she was more than perplexed, almost hysterical, so she told Ezra she was going to see and talk to his Marster. Ezra was affrighted, and said, “Ef’n you tu’n fool an’ git ter prancin’ erroun’ Marster, he will say dat he is sho’ you mus’ uh run ’way wid me, an’ dat he don’ like Tennessee niggahs.” Matilda had more courage, however, than Ezra, so she interviewed Ezra’s Marster, who said: “Are you a slave?” “Yes, sir.” “I hope your Marster is good and kind to you?” “Y-a-s, indeed, meh Marster; he is ve’y ’zactin’ an’ punnounced, but he is jes’ ez kind ez kind kin be; ef’n I hadn’ fell in lub wid Ezzy, dat Eastern Sho’ an’ his boat, I wudn’ arsk you ter buy me an’ leabe Mars Bedford; but you know Ezzy hab ve’y cutesome ways.” “Suppose I can get your Marster to buy Ezra and make him promise never to sell him as long as he behaves himself; how then? I hate to part with him, but I have servants enough.” “Meh Marster, dat will settle de ’spute rite ’way; please sell Ezzy to Mars Bedford. I’m sho’ he wudn’ part wid me, an’ Ezzy wild suit him futto handle de hosses.” Mr. Forrest said he would not take five thousand dollars for Matilda; she was all in all the best servant he ever owned, and after a brief talk not only bought Ezra, but the sheep; so they did not have to come home and carry their tails behind them. N. B. Forrest soon became attached to Ezra, thought the world of him, and when the Civil War broke out took him as his body servant. Ezra served him faithfully during the war, and when General Forrest disbanded his troops at Gainesville, Ala., May 9th, 1865, General Forrest told Ezra he would give him a home and take care of him as long as he lived. Ezra said, “He wud like once mo’ ter see Mars Matthew an’ Miss Mary an’ den cum back.” Whereupon General Forrest presented him with Pigeon, a mule, and gave him money enough to go home. He rode some hundred and seventy miles to the home of a Mrs. Sanson, where he stayed two weeks, and then took the train from Rome, Ga., for home; and one bright, beautiful morning early in June, timid and lonesome the steamer landed him at Miles River Wharf, Talbot County, Maryland, a mile by water from “Fairlands.”