ton." It may amuse you to know that so am I. When I told him he laughed approvingly, and said:

"Well, thank Heaven there is no sand hereabouts. Hope you have better rooms than we have. Ours are on the top floor. By the bye, have just hired an automobile; come and take a drive with me this afternoon out into the country." I suppose my expression changed, for, gazing at me with a sneer, he added: "Don't look at me like that; one would think you were afraid. Do you fear me or the automobile?"

The simple truth was the weather was the coldest of the year. Washington occasionally has a day that would do credit to the Arctic regions, and I hated to be in his society. The very sight of the man made me draw into my shell like a turtle in the presence of an enemy. When he

suggested my being actuated by fear, there was nothing for me to do but accept. We arranged to start at three, and parted. I felt as I used to as a child, after making an appointment with a dentist. At three, in fur overcoats, we started down through Georgetown and out over the bridge, Arlington way. We were silent for some

time. Then he remarked:

"I suppose you find me difficult to understand; I find myself so. Don't try; give it up, as I have, and save your brain. My trouble at present is that I have a sneaking admiration for you."

We were just passing a negro cabin of the most dilapidated appearance, when the door flew open, and out plunged a little rascal about five years old, as black as crape. He tried to cross in front of us, but was too late; we struck him, but fortu

nately did not run over him. We must have knocked him fifteen feet. B. stopped the auto so suddenly as to almost throw me out. He had the little chap in his arms in a moment, looking into his face with a most distressed expression, and repeating over and over again, "Ma pore little pickaninny," unconsciously talking "nigger talk," but the little bundle of rags lay very still; at last he turned to me, his face all white and showing tenderness in every line, and said, in a low voice: " Dayton, I believe I've killed him." Can you believe it? that brute was looking at me unashamed, with a big, big tear in either eye. Can it be, I thought, that this man's one weakness is children?- he has none of his own. The little one, thank God, was not killed, only stunned, and when he opened his eyes, he put out his two little dirty black hands

and placed them, with that confidence that only children have, on B.'s cheeks. B.'s sardonic smile had changed to a look a mother might have envied. We carried him into the cabin, for the bitter wind was sweeping the earth like a merciless broom. We found the inside as cold as the out, and the wind blew playfully through the crevices, unconscious or uncaring that its breath was death. Before a fire that had been and was not, sat two black men on the floor, their elbows on their knees, holding their frozen arms up before a paling ember, each arm as stiff as that of an Indian devotee who had kept his arm upraised for years. They barely noticed us as we entered; they were mentally frozen as well; theirs was an Arctic apathy. I glanced around the room, not a chair nor a table; everything had been burned, and they were

awaiting death with calm indifference. Suddenly I heard B. exclaim:

"Good God, man, look there!" and he pointed. Turning, I looked back and saw two women in one bed, with their arms tightly clasped about each other, gazing at us with wide-open eyes. They had over them only one dirty sheet and three or four old burlap bags. At last the younger one spoke, and said:

"Martha and I'se in yer to keep wome, suh. Ole Abe ober dar say we all be dead by mo'ning, but I doan care; de Lawd's always been good to me." Then the older spoke, saying:

"Lucretia, doan you bodder de gemmen; dey can't do us no good; you goin' to have de Lawd's arms roun' you instead of mine mighty soon."