il's as good as the pore-house for me, ef they want to send me
thair, fur it's in town, and Roxy kin come an' look through the bars at
me every day."

Roxy was so much affected that she threw her apron up to her face, and
Vesta and Phoebus had to smile, while Samson Hat, looking indulgently
on, exclaimed,

"Dar's love all froo de woods. Doves an' crows can't help it. It's
deeper down dan fedders an' claws."

"That nigger trader," continued Jack Wonnell, bell-crown in hand, "hired
me an' Levin to take him a tarrapinin'. He had a bag of gold that
big"--measuring with his hand in the crown of the hat--"an' he give
Levin some of it, an' I took it to Levin's mother las' night, an' told
her Levin wouldn't be back fur a week, maybe. I thought Mr. Johnson was
gwyn to give me some gold too, so I could buy Roxy, but yer's all he
give me. Everybody disappints me, Jimmy!"

Jack Wonnell showed an old silver fi'penny bit, and his countenance was
so lugubrious that the sailor exclaimed,

"Jack, he paid you too well for all the sense you got. Now, whar has
Levin gone with the _Ellenora Dennis?_"

"I don't know, Jimmy. He made Levin sail her up to the landin' down yer
below town, whair Levin's father, Cap'n Dennis, launched the _Idy_
fifteen year ago. I left Levin thar, and he said, 'Jack, I'm goin' off
with the nigger trader to git some of his money fur mother!'"

"Poor miserable boy!" Phoebus exclaimed; "he's led off easy as his
pore daddy. The man he's gone with, Miss Vesty, is black as hell. Joe
Johnson is known to every thief on the bay, every gypsy on the shore. He
steals free niggers when he can't buy slave ones, outen Delaware state.
He sometimes runs away Maryland slaves to oblige their hypocritical
masters that can't sell 'em publicly, an' Johnson and the bereaved owner
divides the price. Go in the house, yaller gal!" Jimmy Phoebus turned
to Roxy, who obeyed instantly. "Jack Wonnell, you go too; I'm done with
you!" (Jack slipped around the house and made his peace with Roxy before
he started.) "You needn't to go, Samson; I know you're true as steel!"

"I must go an' git de breakfast, Jimmy," the negro said, going in.

"Now, Miss Vesty"--Phoebus turned to the mistress of Teackle
Hall--"Joe Johnson has got old Hominy and the little niggers, by smoke!
That part of this hokey pokey is purty sure! Did he steal them an'
decoy them, or wair they sold to him by Judge Custis or by Meshach
Milburn?"

"By neither, I will risk