sobs and tears and shouts of all present.

Many, however, pressed around him, earnestly begging him not
to send them away; and, with anxious faces, tendering back
their free papers.

"We don't want to be no freer than we are. We's allers had all
we wanted. We don't want to leave de ole place, and Mas'r
and Missis, and de rest!"

"My good friends," said George, as soon as he could get a silence,
"there'll be no need for you to leave me. The place wants as many
hands to work it as it did before. We need the same about the
house that we did before. But, you are now free men and
free women. I shall pay you wages for your work, such as we shall
agree on. The advantage is, that in case of my getting in debt, or
dying,--things that might happen,--you cannot now be taken up and
sold. I expect to carry on the estate, and to teach you what,
perhaps, it will take you some time to learn,--how to use the rights
I give you as free men and women. I expect you to be good, and
willing to learn; and I trust in God that I shall be faithful, and
willing to teach. And