"I had forgotten that the war of 1862 had decided that grave question.

I ask those honest men's pardon for it," added Harris, with that delicate irony which a Southerner must put into his language when speaking to blacks.

"But on seeing those gentlemen in your service, I believed----" "They are not, and have never been, in my service, sir," replied Mrs.
Weldon, gravely.
"We should be honored in serving you, Mrs.Weldon," then said old Tom.
"But, as Mr.Harris knows, we do not belong to anybody.

I have been a slave myself, it is true, and sold as such in Africa, when I was only six years old; but my son Bat, here, was born of an enfranchised father, and, as to our companions, they were born of free parents." "I can only congratulate you about it," replied Harris, in a tone which Mrs.Weldon did not find sufficiently serious.

"In this land of Bolivia, also, we have no slaves.