, he _got_ to run heh down an' fetch heh
back. An' same time de creeks an' bayous----"

"Oh, now, that's the same old----"

"Yass, oh, yass, de same ole! So ole an' common dat you white
folks--what has all de feelin's----"

"Now, just hush! You don't know anything about it! Go on! Go on! The
bayous were--what?"

"Bank full, dat's all. One place Phyllis an' him nigh got swep' away an'
he drap' de chile."

"Oh!... Oh!... Oh!"

"He bleeged to do it, he tell yo' ma, fo' to save Phyllis--what ain't
want'n' to be save'. Whils' de chile--wuz--de chile wuz drownded." The
old woman moved to rise, but the girl, with a new expression in her
face, prevented her.

"Go on! What did mom-a do?"

"Lawd, what could she do--widout yo' pa?"

"Oh, I'd have done something. What did Phyllis do?"

"Phyllis? Dess th'ash' de bed fo' th'ee days--eyes a-blazin' murdeh;
th'ee days and de Lawd know' how many night'. Yo' ma done one thing but
you don't want to know dat, I reckon."

"What did she do? Did she turn Whig?"

"Wuss!--ef wuss kin be. She tu'n'--dat day--Abolitionless. Ain't neveh
tell me, but--you ax heh. Mebbe it wa'n't all 'count o' Phyllis. Mebbe
it wa'n't plumb hoss-sensible nohow. But dat day-- You ax heh!"

Ramsey flashed: "What are you telling me all this for?"

"Lawd! An' how many time' is you say, 'Go on'?"

"I meant about the _Quakeress_."

"Well, ain't dis de story o' de _Quak'ess_? When----"

"Stop! I'll tell it to you. I see it all."

"You! Y'ain't see it de quahteh o' half a quahteh. Dat story is
a-happmin' yit--to we-all--on dis boat!"

The breakfast-bell rang again, and Hugh started down from the
pilot-house. But Ramsey would ask the old woman one more question: "Is
it happening to him, too?"

"Co'se, him; all o' us; twins an' all. When us brung Phyllis down de
riveh yo' ma wuz dead ag'in sellin' heh, an' when us git win' dat de
Co'teneys want' a nuss yo' pa he dat glad he snap his fingehs. 'Us'll
rent Phyllis to 'em!' he say. 'Dey's Hendry Clay Whigs; dey'd ought to
treat heh fine.' (Dat wuz his joke.) An' yo' ma make answeh: 'Ef dey
don't, us kin take heh back! Betteh dat dan sell heh! Nobody o' de Hayle
blood shayn't do dat whils' I live.'"

Hugh was near. "Good morning!" sang Ramsey. They met at the head of a
stair. She turned away and looked out beyond the jack-staff as radiantly
as if she had just alighted on the planet. The chute was astern. A new
reach of open water came, sun-gilt, to meet