he lee-tle-est moonshiner on record!" resounded fulsomely
about him. Many were the compliments showered upon him, and if his
flatterers told lies, they had told more wicked ones. The pipes all went
out, and the broken-nosed pitcher languished in disuse as he trotted
from one pair of outstretched arms to another to give an exhibition of
his progress in the noble art of locomotion; and if he now and again sat
down, unexpectedly to himself and to the spectator, he was promptly put
upon his feet again with spurious applause and encouragement. He gave an
exhibition of his dancing--a funny little shuffle of exceeding temerity,
considering the facilities at his command for that agile amusement, but
he was made reckless by praise--and they all lied valiantly in chorus.
He repeated all the words he knew, which were few, and for the most part
unintelligible, crowed like a cock, barked like a dog, mewed like a cat,
and finally went away, his red cheeks yet more ruddily aglow, grave and
excited and with quickly beating pulses, like one who has achieved some
great public success and led captive the hearts of thousands.

The turmoils of his visit and his departure were great indeed. It all
irked Nehemiah Yerby, who had scant toleration of infancy and little
perception of the jocosity of the aspect of callow human nature, and it
seemed strange to him that these men, all with their liberty, even their
existence, jeopardized upon the chances that a moment might bring forth,
could so relax their sense of danger, so disregard the mandates
of stolid common-sense, and give themselves over to the puerile
beguilements of the visitor. The little animal was the son of one of
them, he knew, but he hardly guessed whom until he marked the paternal
pride and content that had made unwontedly placid the brow of the irate
miller while the ovation was in progress. Nehemiah greatly preferred the
adult specimen of the race, and looked upon youth as an infirmity
which would mend only with time. He was easily confused by a stir; the
gurglings, the ticklings, the loud laughter both in the deep bass of the
hosts and the keen treble of the guest had a befuddling effect upon him;
his powers of observation were numbed. As the great, burly forms shifted
to and fro, resuming their former places, the red light from the open
door of the furnace illumining their laughing, bearded countenances,
casting a roseate suffusion upon the white turmoils of the cataract,
and s