Cornelia, who, though mild and serene, was possessed of firmness and a sense of justice, would have had the matter fairly settled. “He ort not to cut up this-away, John,” she urged. “He ort to take his little plate and behave hisse'f; 'r else he ort to be spanked,--he really ort, John, in jestice to the child.” But John was of another mould. “Law, Cornely! Hit's jest baby-doin's. The idee o' him a-settin' up 'at yo' dishes ain't clean! That shore do beat all!” And he had executed an exchange of plates under Cornelia's deprecating eyes. And so the matter went. Again, upon a June day, Sammy was at play with the scion of the only negro family which had ever been known in all the Turkey Track regions. The Southern mountaineers have little affinity, socially or politically, with the people of the settlements. There were never any slaveholders among them, and the few isolated negroes were treated with almost perfect equality by the simple-minded mountain dwellers. “Sammy honey, you an' Jimmy mus' cl'ar up yo' litter here. Don't leave it on mammy's nice flo'. Hit's mighty nigh supper-time. Cl'ar up now, 'fo' Pappy comes.” Sammy stiffened his little figure to a startling rigidity. “I ain't a-goin' to work!” he flung out. “Let him do it; _he's a nigger_!” And this was the last word of the argument. This was Sammy--handsome, graceful, exceedingly winning, sudden and passionate, disdaining like a young zebra the yoke of labor, and, when crossed, absolutely beyond all reason or bounds; the life of every gathering of young people as he grew up; much made of, deferred to, sought after, yet everywhere blamed as undutiful and ungrateful. “Oh, I do p'intedly wish the neighbors would leave us alone,” sighed Pap Overholt, when these reports came to him. “As ef I didn't know what I wanted--as ef I couldn't raise my own chile;” and as he said this he ever avoided Aunt Cornelia's honest eye. It was when Sammy was eighteen, the best dressed, the best horsed--and the idlest--to be found from Little Turkey Track to the Fur Cove, from Tatum's to Big Buck Gap--that he went one day, riding his sorrel filly, down to Hepzibah, ostensibly to do some errands for Aunt Cornelia, but in fact simply in search of a good time. The next day Blev Straly, a rifle over his shoulder and a couple of hounds at heel, stopped a moment at the chopping-block where Pap was splitting some kindling. “I was a-passin',” he explained--“I was jest a-passin', an' I 'lowed I'd drap in an' tell ye 'bout Sammy. Hit better be me than somebody 'at likes to carry mean tales and wants to watch folks suffer.” Aunt Cornelia was beside her husband now.