I s'pose I can bar it as well as any on 'em," he added, while something like a sob and a sigh shook his broad, rough chest convulsively.

"Mas'r always found me on the spot--he always will.

I never have broke trust, nor used my pass no ways contrary to my word, and I never will.

It's better for me alone to go, than to break up the place and sell all.

Mas'r an't to blame, Chloe, and he'll take care of you and the poor--" Here he turned to the rough trundle bed full of little woolly heads, and broke fairly down.