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"I dunno," said Charlie; "it’s nearly mine now. Why you don’t stay dare youse’f?"

"Because I don’t want!" said the Colonel savagely. "Is dat reason enough for you? You better take me in de notion, old man, I tell you,—yes!"

Charlie never winced; but how his answer delighted the Colonel! Quoth Charlie:

"I don’t care —I take him—mais, possession give right off. "

"Not the whole plantation, Charlie; only"—

"I don’t care," said Charlie; "we easy can fix dat. Mais, what for you don’t want to keep him? I don’t want him. You better keep him. "

"Don’t you try to make no fool of me, old man," cried the planter.

"Oh, no!" said the other. "Oh, no! but you make a fool of yourself, ain’t it?"

The dumbfounded Colonel stared; Charlie went on:

"Yass! Belles Demoiselles is more wort’ dan tree block like dis one. I pass by dare since two weeks. Oh, pritty Belles Demoiselles! De cane was wave in de wind, de garden smell like a bouquet, de white-cap was jump up and down on de river; seven belles demoiselleswas ridin’ on horses.’Pritty, pritty, pritty!’ says old Charlie. Ah! Monsieur le père, ‘ow ‘appy, ‘appy, ‘appy!"

"Yass!" he continued—the Colonel still staring—"le Compte De Charleu have two familie. One was low-down Choctaw, one was high up noblesse. He gave the low-down Choctaw dis old rat-hole; he give Belles Demoiselles to you gran-fozzer; and now you don’t be satisfait. What I’ll do wid Belles Demoiselles? She’ll break me in two years, yass. And what you’ll do wid old Charlie’s house, eh? You’ll tear her down and make you’se’f a blame old fool. I rather wouldn’t trade!"

The planter caught a big breathful of anger, but Charlie went straight on:

"I rather wouldn’t, maisI will do it for you;—just the same, like Monsieur le Compte would say, ‘Charlie, you old fool, I want to shange houses wid you.’ "

So long as the Colonel suspected irony he was angry, but as Charlie seemed, after all, to be certainly in earnest, he began to feel conscience-stricken. He was by no means a tender man, but his lately-discovered misfortune had unhinged him, and this strange, undeserved, disinterested family fealty on the part of Charlie touched his heart. And should he still try to lead him into the pitfall he had dug? He hesitated;—no, he would show him the place by broad daylight, and if he chose to overlook the "caving bank," it would be his own fault;—a trade’s a trade.

"Come," said the planter, "come at my house tonight; to-morrow we look at the place before breakfast, and finish the trade. "

"For what?" said Charlie.

"Oh, because I got to come in town in the morning. "

"I don’t want," said Charlie. "How I’m goin’ to come dere?"

"I git you a horse at the liberty stable. "

"Well—anyhow—I don’t care—I’ll go. " And they went.

When they had ridden a long time, and were on the road darkened by hedges of Cherokee rose, the Colonel called behind him to the "low-down" scion:

"Keep the road, old man. "

"Eh?"

"Keep the road. "

"Oh, yes; all right; I keep my word; we don’t goin’ to play no tricks, eh?"

But the Colonel seemed not to hear. His ungenerous design was beginning to be hateful to him. Not only old Charlie’s unprovoked goodness was prevailing; the eulogy on Belles Demoiselles had stirred the depths of an intense love for his beautiful home. True, if he held to it, the caving of the bank, at its present fearful speed, would let the house into the river within three months; but were it not better to lose it so, than sell his birthright? Again,—coming back to the first thought,—to betray his own blood! It was only Injin Charlie; but had not the De Charleu blood just spoken out in him? Unconsciously he groaned.

After a time they struck a path approaching the plantation in the rear, and a little after, passing from behind a clump of live-oaks, they came in sight of the villa. It looked so like a gem, shining through its dark grove, so like a great glow-worm in the dense foliage, so significant of luxury and gayety, that the poor master, from an overflowing heart, groaned again.