He came near choking on a gulp of coffee, and again his knee suffered from the pounding of his great hands. "Huccume you so full of laugh to-night?" she asked, laughing with him. "How you 'spec' I gwine tell you dat less'n I tell you my sec'ut?" "Well, den, go on--tell me yo' sec'ut." "Huh uh. You done bet it ain' wuff tellin'." "I don't keer what I bet. I wan' to hyeah it now. Please, Ben, please!" "Listen how she baig! Well, I gwine tell you now. I ain' gwine tease you no mo'." She bent her head forward expectantly. "I had a talk wid Mas' Raymond to-day," resumed Ben. "Yes?" "An' he say he pay me all my back money fu' ovahtime." "Oh!" "An' all I gits right along he gwine he'p me save, an' when I git fo' hund'ed dollahs he gwine gin me de free papahs fu' you, my little gal." "Oh, Ben, Ben! Hit ain' so, is it?" "Yes, hit is. Den you'll be you own ooman--leas'ways less'n you wants to be mine." She went and put her arms around his neck. Her eyes were sparkling and her lips quivering. "You don' mean, Ben, dat I'll be free?" "Yes, you'll be free, Viney. Den I's gwine to set to wo'k an' buy my free papahs." "Oh, kin you do it--kin you do it--kin you do it?" "Kin I do it?" he repeated. He stretched out his arm, with the sleeve rolled to the shoulder, and curved it upward till the muscles stood out like great knots of oak. Then he opened and shut his fingers, squeezing them together until the joints cracked. "Kin I do it?" He looked down on her calmly and smiled simply, happily. She threw her arms around his waist and sank on her knees at his feet sobbing. "Ben, Ben! My Ben! I nevah even thought of it. Hit seemed so far away, but now we're goin' to be free--free, free!" He lifted her up gently. "It's gwine to tek a pow'ful long time," he said. "I don' keer," she cried gaily. "We know it's comin' an' we kin wait." The woman's serious mood had passed as quickly as it had come, and she spun around the cabin, executing a series of steps that set her husband a-grin with admiration and joy. And so Ben began to work with renewed vigor. He had found a purpose in life and there was something for him to look for beyond dinner, a dance and the end of the day. He had always been a good hand, but now he became a model--no shirking, no shiftlessness--and because he was so earnest his master did what he could to help him. Numerous little plans were formulated whereby the slave could make or save a precious dollar.