How the coming of one person can change an atmosphere! At one moment the breath we draw is a new and invigorating hope, the next instant the air is parched and dead—we see an evil eye, a hated face. My education was not systematic; I read as a hungry man eats; and, as my learning progressed, I began to give myself up to a speculation upon the sadness of my lot in life, my eyes becoming wider and wider opened to the fact that knowledge could avail me nothing, could but throw a lime-light upon my bondage and make it ghastly; but when the doctor returned I looked back at my state of happiness during his absence. It was true that Old Miss gave over no opportunity to humiliate me, but I had grown so accustomed to this that no longer did it sting me—I put it down as the soured whim of an old woman. But the sight of the doctor, the fact that he and I were under the same roof, was iced water constantly dripping upon my head. I was not physically afraid of him; gladly would I have fought him; in a fight I[Pg 162] could have cut his throat and stood looking calmly upon his blood, and thousands of times had I wished that I were a white man, that I might challenge him; but morally I stood in horror of him. I avoided him, slinking about like a thief; I hid myself behind stone walls and in thickets until he had passed, but at the table I was compelled to look upon him and to hear his voice. Once when he spoke to me my Young Master saw me tremble and when we had gone forth together, the young man said to me: "Dan, don't stand behind my chair at meal time any more. It's a piece of nonsense anyway, a notion covered with mold."  
I thanked him and told him that I would not, but at supper that evening, Old Mistress flouted so and made such a fuss at my absence that Master came to the foot of the stairs and called me. "It won't be for long," he said as I came down. "I don't believe that fellow can stay here much longer."
 
But the days wore along and he continued to remain, and though I was skillful in my avoidance of him, yet he sometimes confronted me when I least expected it. One afternoon, during the wheat harvest, I was sent to the distillery to get whisky to be served to the hands. Just as the distiller had handed me the full[Pg 163] jug, the doctor stepped out and in apparent surprise asked me what I wanted there. I told him that Old Master had sent me for whisky.
 
"I believe you are lying," said he, "but take it and go, and don't fool along the road, either. Do you hear?"
 
I told him that I had no intention of fooling along the road. "That yellow rascal is petted until his fingers and toes stick out," said he to the distiller. "I wanted to take him and make something of him, but they wouldn't let me. But I'll get him yet."
 
"He'd be worth fifteen hundred if he was a little pearter," said the distiller, looking at me as I moved off.
 
"Yes," the doctor agreed, "and an apple tree sprout well laid on would add many a dollar to his worth."
 
I walked as rapidly as I could, but the doctor being on horseback soon overtook me. I wondered what new insult was fermenting in his mind. I had not long to wait. "Boy," said he, riding up, "are you sure you haven't swigged some of that liquor?"
 
"I have not touched it," I answered without looking up.
 
"Stop a minute," he commanded and I obeyed. He[Pg 164] looked up and down the road, and then said: "Take out that corn-cob stopper and drink."
 
"It is not for me, sir," I replied.
 
"I don't give a d— whom it's for; you drink it."
 
I stood near a fence and with one arm resting upon it as I replied: "You want me to get back drunk to bring disgrace upon my Young Master and myself."
 
He kicked his horse and rode almost upon me. His eyes were green with hate and had he thrust forth a forked tongue like a serpent, I could not have felt surprise. He stood in his stirrups and lifted high his riding whip. "You yellow ooze of the devil, I'll make you drink that liquor or I'll slit your hide until it won't hold feathers." His lips were apart, his teeth were set and his brows were knit with the force that he summoned to his arm. Within a second this stinging blow must fall, but I commanded him in so sharp a tone to hold that his arm came down slowly and his whip hung at his side. "Do you threaten me!" he hissed, thrusting his chin forward. Year after year he had eluded the notice of age, had escaped, it seemed to me, without enumeration, but now the time he had cheated came fall upon him, wrinkling his face, yellowing his countenance and making him hideous. He was so close upon me, leaning forward with his sharp chin[Pg 165] pointed at my heart, that I could smell the fumes of brandy on his breath. He gazed hard, trying, I could see, to hold my attention, but I noticed that his hands were not idle. He changed his whip to his left hand and with his right plucked out a keen knife. I was in a corner of the fence and the horse's breast was almost against me. And thus he was poised like a fierce animal, waiting for my reply, hoping that it would not be one of submission. I was not frightened, but reason flew through my mind like a bird caught by a strong wind. To defend myself meant the gallows.
 
"Doctor," said I, "you have no cause to seek my life. You are a white man and I am what you are pleased to call a negro. In the court-house your mere word would be a law against my oath. You have every moral as well as, at present, every physical advantage. You are a man of education and are closely connected with one of the best families in this proud State, and now what prompts you to tread upon me?"
 
My coolness drove him mad. He kicked his horse and jammed me into the corner of the fence. For a second his knife gleamed like the belly of a snake circling in the air. I threw up the jug, caught the knife and the broken blade fell to the ground—I[Pg 166] seized the horse in the nostrils, as I had seen Mr. Clem grasp "the devil," wrenched him until he fell upon his knees, caught up the jug which I had let fall at my feet, threw it over into the soft clover and with a spring followed it. The enraged man's oaths ripped like a saw striking a knot.
 
"I'll get you yet," he cried, shaking the knife-handle at me.
 
"You will feel better when you are sober," I said, smiling at him. I could have sliced his heart and therefore I smiled—at the happy thought. "And I want to tell you one thing. I may be hanged one mile from the court-house, but this is the last time I am going to run from you." I turned to go, but he called me. "You have threatened me," he said, not raging, but with more of quiet than I could have expected, "and on my part it would be justice to take a gun and shoot you, but if you will agree to say nothing about this affair when you go to the house, I will swear never again to molest you. The truth is I've been drinking and am not myself."
 
"I looked at it in another light, sir. I thought that the drink had given your true self a bold development."
 
"God, but you can talk, you yellow—but I say, Dan,[Pg 167] I mean what I say. Agree not to mention this affair and I'll always treat you civilly. I've had enough to spoil the temper of any man alive, but I'll hold it down so far as you are concerned. What do you say?"
 
"I agree, sir."
 
"All right. Now give me a drink out of that jug and I'll call it square."
 
"No, this liquor is not for you; it is for the harvest hands; it isn't up to your grade."
 
"Consideration or impudence, one of the other—but I'll let it pass. All right, now," he added, tightening his bridle-rein to ride away, "remember your part of the contract and I'll remember mine."
 
Old Jason, at the head............