unmolested, a yoke of which were pressed into service, Simon doing the plowing and Elsie the hoeing. In a few days the negroes who had been carried off began to come in, until about all had returned. Simon advised each to harness up the oxen on the place and plow them, and to break to the plow a drove of half-grown mules and horse colts that were on the place. By this means probably half of the farm could be plowed and cultivated. Simon told each man that under the changed order of things it was "every fellow for himself, even if the devil got the hindmost." It was only a question of a short time now when the Confederacy would collapse, as Johnson was fleeing before Sherman in the Carolinas, and Lee, having evacuated Richmond, was hard pressed by Grant. Every State had been invaded, and in a few weeks the Confederate Government would fall to pieces and the soldiers return home, Colonel R. among the number, and he could then take charge of the plantation himself and make any change he saw fit.

Simon was satisfied, however, that this dividing up of the hands in squads would meet with the approbation of Colonel R., who would probably be a month later coming home than the other soldiers, as he was in prison in the far North when the Southern armies surrendered.

Before going to work under the new regime Simon made a visit to Colonel R.'s cotton and found it all O.K. He and Elsie then went to battle against "General Green," who had begun his depredations on the growing crop by this temporary cessation of hostilities against him. The crop was half made when Colonel R. made his appearance on his place. He expressed himself as well pleased in the way each hand was making use of what facilities the military cyclone had left in its path, and for them to carry things on as they were then doing, and when the crop was gathered he would give them a liberal share of it. The harvest proved to be a bountiful one, and the negroes were greatly elated at the success of this their first attempt to farm without an overseer or foreman. Colonel R. had a private interview with Simon, when both went to inspect the cotton that Simon had been intrusted with. They found it intact and in a good state of preservation. Simon then and there made a full confession of his share in the attempted escape of Elsie and child, of his apprehension and imprisonment, of his letter to him and its return, of his letter to his mistress advising her of the gold, and that it would be best to move it, etc.

The Colonel replied that he would have liberated Elsie and the child anyway, and didn't much blame him in trying to effect their escape, and that the only blame he attached to it was the sending off with the party Jack and Jim. However, he was satisfied with Simon's stewardship, and would now proceed to count him out the ten thousand dollars in gold which he had promised him, and that he would engage him as superintendent on his farm for the ensuing year at a salary of two thousand dollars per annum, thus literally carrying out their compact. It is needless to say that Simon hired a substitute to plow the oxen.

They returned to the farm, had all the ex-slaves assembled, when the Colonel made them a nice, short speech, commending them for their faithfulness during his absence in the army; that the Confederacy had been beaten, the war was over, and that they were free men, women and children; that whosoever may have been responsible for slavery in the United States, that whether it was right or wrong, the South had resorted to the arbitrament of arms, and as a result they were free, and that next year he would contract with any or all who wanted to farm on his place, under the superintendency of Simon. During this talk he had gotten a good look at Octavia, not knowing whose child it was, called Simon aside, and asked whose it was; that it was a beautiful child, and looked as if it were pure white. Simon then said that it was a delicate subject, but that as he had asked for information, he would give it to him. The child was Elsie's, and she says that he, the Colonel, is its father. He then admitted to Simon that it was so, and that, while at home on furlough at one time during the war, he so far transgressed the laws of virtue, as to have an innocent, illegitimate child brought into existence. He also said that Elsie was not so much to blame as he, and that he was ashamed of his conduct, all of which was in the past, and could not be undone, and that he would atone, as far as possible, for his transgression, give Octavia the best education, in every branch, that time, money and labor would procure, and that, at his death, he would remember Octavia in his will, all of which was scrupulously carried out. The only conditions imposed were that the child be given to Simon, who would be her trustee or agent, in carrying all these things out, which had to be done secretly.

CHAPTER VIII.

COTTON PROWLING—EMPLOYING OCTAVIA'S GOVERNESS.

Not long after the Southern soldiers came home, they began a wholesale prowling of government cotton, and in some instances, private cotton was stolen. The status of this government cotton was as follows: The Confederate government issued bonds, with a liberal rate of interest, exchanging them with the planters for their cotton, and in this way, a large amount had been acquired, half of which probably was still in warehouses and gin houses throughout the Southern States. Of course, this property, on the collapse of the Confederacy, by all moral and legal right, became the property of the United States government.

When the soldiers came home, they were without money, clothes, and in many instances, without anything to eat, especially if their homes were in the path of either army.

They claimed that they were violating no law of God or man in taking this cotton. However, the pulpits in the country came out strongly against this practice, saying that if it was wrong to take private cotton, it was as much so to take public cotton; that the latter was nothing more nor less than wholesale theft. By some means, the whereabouts of Colonel R.'s cotton was found out, and it was whispered around, that it was government cotton. I would say here that Colonel R. had made a liberal donation of cotton to his government for bonds, but that every bale had been delivered and carried off. A raid was projected on this cotton on a certain night, but when they got there they found it guarded, Colonel R. and Simon having slept there since this cotton-prowling began. The leader of the raid claimed that it was government cotton, and that the raiders were going to have it. Colonel R. protested that it was not government cotton, but his own private property, and that if they got it they would have to do so over his dead body, and that he had help and was well armed. The night was dark, and fearing that it might be well guarded, and not knowing how many they had to oppose, the raiders decided that "discretion was the better part of valor," and left without molesting the cotton.

Colonel R. immediately hired every wagon and team, hauled the cotton to the river, shipped it to New Orleans by the first boat, and realized fifty cents per pound in gold for it, and as there were about one thousand bales, the reader can calculate, at five hundred pounds per bale, what a nice fortune the Colonel had, all of which had much to do with Octavia's future career.

While to all appearances Octavia was as white as the whitest, she had African blood coursing through her veins, which would debar her from Southern society. Social laws on this point were as rigid and unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians.

Octavia was now about five years of age, most too young to begin school, but the Colonel determined at once to hire a governess for her. Consequently he advertised in one of the foremost Northern dailies for one. He was not long in receiving answers to his "ad." One reply, from the interior of New York State, pleased him more than any of the others, the