I always felt a sort of admiration for this worthy, because of the thoroughness with which he outwitted me, and the sublime impudence in which he culminated.

He got a series of passes from me, every week or two, to go and see his wife on a neighboring plantation, and finally, when this resource seemed exhausted, he came boldly for one more pass, that he might go and be married.
We used to quote _him_ a good deal, also, as a sample of a certain Shakespearian boldness of personification in which the men sometimes indulged.

Once, I remember, his captain had given him a fowling-piece to clean.

Henry Ward had left it in the captain's tent, and the latter, finding it, had transferred the job to some one else.
Then came a confession, in this precise form, with many dignified gesticulations:-- "Cappen! I took dat gun, and I put bun in Cappen tent.

Den I look, and de gun not dar! Den Conscience say, Cappen mus' hab gib dat gun to somebody else for clean.