timidation would necessarily compel their full surrender or their retreat from the county. But they were again to be foiled; this time by the freed people. No sooner had they learned of this fresh outrage upon their friends, than a negro woman came forward and volunteered not only to provide the food, but also to cook and serve it for them at actual cost.

To their warning of the probable consequences to herself of such service to them, this woman replied:

"Captain, I'z cooked fur my ole marstah all my days, an' he nebber gin me so much as a new dress when I quit um. Kase I wor free now. Sence dat I'z been cookin' fur de white genelmens an' a furnishin' of um thar food, an' I 'low I can do jez 'e same fur yo' all. Kase I'm ole now, got no mo'n a few yar ter stay y'here on dis si' de dark riber ob death, no how; an' my son, yo' all knows him, he sais, sais he, Mammy, nary schools in dis y'here Azoo County 'fo' de Morgans come'd ter dis yar Azoo City, an' sho's yo' boh'n ef dey goze frum y'here, dat day de schools go wid um,' an' so dey would. I noes um. Kan't fool me, 'f I iz a nigger an' ain't got no larnin'. Jeems ha' got some, thank de blessed God A'mighty and yo' all Yankees. Doan yo' min' me, honey, jez yo' say yo'l nebber be too proud ter eat arter ole Aunt Sarah, an' I'l take car' on yo' all, honey, bless ye."

This grand old woman, the General told me afterward, spoke, looked, and acted "just as though she were asking a favor" of these outcasts; and they granted it. But she had continued at this service not more than a few days, when, having to carry the food some distance, the enemy began first to coax, then to try to bribe, then to threaten, and all these failing, they actually intercepted her upon the street and spilled her dishes.

Certain freedmen, however, having foreseen such a result, one of them, a shoemaker, and a sort of pet with the whites, had been able to secure a room upon the ground floor of the same building in which the outcasts lodged, and had moved himself, family, and shop into it, so that when Aunt Sarah

could no longer perform the service, this shoemaker's wife volunteered to supply her place. This was upon his own motion, and for that reason was the more appreciated by the outcasts. By reason of the close proximity of this shoemaker's shop, and of a stairway which led from it to the back gallery of the rooms of the Yankee outcasts, the food could be got to them without danger of being intercepted by "the enemy." But that enemy's resources were equal to this emergency, for those "anti-Yankees" not only withdrew their custom from this "nigger cobbler"-for such he had now become their merchants refused to sell him food supplies for his "Yankee boarders."

And now there was a new, and, to these outcasts, a wholly unforeseen way opened for their succor.

In spite of the edict of the merchants the supplies were not cut off. It was some time before Charles and the General were afforded any explanation of the mystery. When at last it came, it proved a source of great comfort to them, for it demonstrated the significance of their example no less than the absolute necessity for it, if free institutions were ever to take the place of the slaveocratic dynasty that the war had disarmed; for those provisions had been furnished secretly, some by the freed people, delivered through their wash-woman, who succeeded in running them through the blockade by hiding them under the clothes in her basket; some by a certain merchant in the town, while the rest had found their way at night to the hands of the shoemaker from boisterous, bulldozing "anti-Yankees," who, in their hearts, still retained their old love for the Union cause.

About this time I visited them. Their quarters had been transformed into an arsenal. There were two breech-loading Spencer rifles, a double-barrelled shot-gun and two revolvers, near by the head of the bed in which they slept. Their windows were barred with iron, and the only door of their apartments was doubly bolted with a huge brace for additional support. It was during this visit that I learned the facts

above narrated, and the additional fact that they were hourly expecting a violent attack from the enemy, who, foiled in their effort to starve them out, were now planning to drive them out or kill them. The latter alternative it seemed had not been fully determined upon, and I was on the eve of learning why for myself.

The incidents of my trip all the way from the capital to Yazoo City, were but a repetition of those on the occasion of my trip from Yazoo City to the capital, "only a little more so," as the driver of the stage put it to the postmaster afterward. It was a little more so; for this time I was refused meals at all the eating places but one, and a drummer for a New York firm wanted "to whip the scalawag," and announced to our fellow-passengers that "such proceedings as I witnessed in that radical black-and-tan convention, gentlemen, wouldn't be tolerated over night in our State." He obtained liberal orders for his house at all the towns on the road and at Yazoo City, and announced to his customers at the latter place, that he was glad he would be able to say to the people of the North when he returned, that the published accounts of" outrages in the South upon Northern gentlemen are d-d lies."

At Deasonville I should doubtless have been mobbed but for the alacrity of the driver, an old Unionist and a secret friend, who gathered the reins and rapidly drove on, when he saw the signs of it in the threatening actions of the white loungers there, one of whom having struck at me, was "reaching for his hip pocket." Having remained in my seat he did not dare to shoot after the stage had started, for fear of hitting other passengers. My arrival at Yazoo City created a sensation. As the stage came rattling over the plank-road and down the bluffs into the town below, some white loungers on the corner identified me from the other passengers in the stage, one of whom shouted back in response to their inquiry: "Is that Morgan?" "Yes, here he is, we've got him-the young one." This arrested the

attention of others, and soon the cry, " O'oophie !"" O'oophie!" "polecat!" "scalawag!" was sounded along the length of the street, rallying the white boys from their marbles or other play, and causing a crowd to assemble.

But the driver had the foresight to stop me at the corner near the little "Yankee stronghold;" for such had the quarters occupied by General Greenleaf and Charles really become-and thus enabled me to elude the mob.

CHAPTER XX

THE TRUE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP-NONE BUT BLACK AMERICAN

ON GUARD TO-NIGHT-AN UNCOVERED SECRET-" SNAKES AND THEIR USES.

99

IN

N those days it was deemed the safer policy by all Republican members of that State convention, to travel incognito and give no notice of their intentions. On this occasion I had arranged with my colleague to ask leave for me to go after I should have started, and as I left by the half-past two A. M. train, I was able to make the stage line by daylight, thus preventing telegraphic discovery of my whereabouts to the enemy at Yazoo City, or at points on the way. So they had not expected me at Yazoo on that day. I had not been a half hour within the stronghold, wher it was besieged by a small army of friends, all colored mer but one; for now even Northerners found it more to their interest not to recognize the outcasts socially, by calling upon them at their stronghold. But the welcome of such as came was worth some sacrifice; for it at least was genuine; besides, it required some courage to boldly visit us in that place with any other than hostile intentions. To be sure, these were negroes. They were nevertheless brave and sincere friends.

They had heard of my "fight" in the convention, they said; had heard how the Democrats had defied the president of that body, the sergeant-at-arms, and even "Stanton's hire