I was sitting in an arm chair with my feet upon the hand rail of the verandah very much at my ease when Major Bullbeggor rode around the bend of the turnpike and came into view. I watched him lazily and noted the action of his mare's hind feet as she threw little jets of dust off to either side. The jets mingled together and formed a yellow cloud in the rear, through which could be seen the grinning teeth of Snake in the Grass, the Major's nigger, who always acted as his body -servant. Snake was mounted ungracefully upon an old spavined clay bank, and he came loping along some three or four fathoms behind his master.