Whilst Sam’l was gone, Ezra thought of the straw stacks he used to climb and slide down, how his young Marster, killed at Petersburg, used to drive Rasmus, Saul, Little Billy and himself tandem, all harnessed up with sweet potato vines, and prancing with sheep-rib bits in their mouths like colts. And then he recalled the colts he broke, gazed upon the river where he used to wade the hunting horses along the beach to wash and tone up their legs; then he thought of his brother, Little Billy, his coon dog, Jasper, and of his boat, and wondered where they all were. He wiped his eyes, took a chew of tobacco, when his crowded thoughts were diverted by Sam’l’s return. So by and by Ezra was bowing to and greeting his “Ole Mistis.” Thinking to condole with her and leave the impression that he always thought his Marster of sound mind, he said, “Miss Mary, people use ter say dat Mars Matthew wuz rash-nal, but I nebber did think Mars Matthew wuz rash-nal.” The old lady could scarcely repress a smile, and told Ezra the quarter where he was born and lived (on Heart’s Cove, a beautiful sheet of water near the homestead and an arm of Miles River) should be renovated and made comfortable as his home, and all that she required of him in his declining years was to keep her in oysters, fish and crabs, an easy task and eminently to the taste of Ezra. [Illustration: MARS ARTHUR. ] In a few days, helped by his young Marster Arthur, Ezra was comfortably domiciled in his quarter on Heart’s Cove, and was very happy. He wished he had ridden Pigeon home instead of giving her away; he missed her so. He did not seem to worry about his wife the war had separated from him. One day whilst he was chinking and fixing up his boat, which old Sam’l had taken good care of, and singing lustily— “When Israel wuz in Egyp’ lan’; Let meh people go; Oppress’d so hyard dey cud not stan’; Let meh people go; Go down Moses, way down in Egyp’ lan’; Tell ole Phario, Let meh people go”— his young Marster Arthur, a lad of 15, who had already grown fond of him, and found him always entertaining, took a seat near him, asked him some questions about the South and if he saw anything of the war. “Who, me? Mars Bedford wuz wid _me_ an’ we fit mo’n uh hunard battles, I specks, skirmages an’ all.” “Who do you mean by Mars Bedford?”