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216 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



trembler ceased to weep, and looking up into his face with a 

 smile, said — 



" "Well, then, you may run along, Billy — I'll wait for you !" 



He was off in an instant, and with her last pure kiss upon 

 his lips, he plied his little legs as fast as they could carry 

 him on the road which he had learned led to the capital of 

 the State. His heart was light, his spirit bold, and the great 

 world before him a shrouded mystery. He reached Raleigh 

 in about a week, begging his way after his own little store 

 gave out. He must have exhibited a great deal of audacity 

 and address, for a child of his age, to have succeeded in 

 getting through such a journey without being stopped by the 

 authorities somewhere on the way. However, it is not more 

 remarkable than many other of the events of his life. 



After reaching Raleigh, his life was of course wretchedly 

 precarious for some time. He prowled about the kitchens of 

 the gentry at meal times, and lived upon such of the scraps 

 of the tables as the negroes chose to throw to him in compas- 

 sion — at night he crawled into some shed or stable to shiver 

 in the straw till morning. 



It happened that a kind-hearted old Judge of the Circuit 

 Court — Campbell by name — who was a very early riser, and 

 always went, the first thing, to see how the cattle and horses 

 came on, found one morning a feeble looking child, with 

 features ghastly and sharpened by hunger, lying in the 

 trough of his cow-house, which was a close shed around three 

 sides of the stable. He stopped, astonished, to gaze upon 

 him. The little fellow had not rags enough upon him to 

 cover his nakedness, and had drawn down some of the hay 

 from the manger above to cover him, and the whole pile 

 shook as he shuddered with the cold. 



The old man gazed for a moment or two upon that troubled 

 sleep, the irregular breathing, broken so often with faint 

 moans, that they touched deeply, and as the tears sprang to 

 his eyes, he murmured — 



