e forgotten during this
scene.

"You still here, you black devil!" cried the pedlar, turning fiercely
round upon the negro. "Am I to be deafened by your cussed croakin'?
Don't mind him, ladies and gentlemen--pay no attention to him. Who cares
about a nigger? He only cries out for his amusement. It's all his tricks
and cunnin'; he'd like to git some more of my sarve on his black hide!
He won't have any, tho'! Be off with ye, you stinkin' nigger!"

"Stinkin' nigga! Massa Yankee say stinkin' nigga!" yelled Sambo, showing
all his white teeth in an ecstasy of anger. "Matto stinkin' nigga now,"
screamed he as he sprang suddenly to his feet, to the infinite delight
of the backwoodsmen, and began capering and hopping about, and grinning
like a mad ape. "Matto stinkin' nigga now; one hour 'go him dearie
Matto, and good Matto, and Massa Yankee promise four picaillee[33] if
Matto let dam heavy chest wid stinkin' serve fall on him foot and
shoulder. Boe! Boe! Massa Yankee no good man; bad Massa, Massa Yankee!"

And so it was and turned out to be. The rogue of a Yankee had made a
sort of bargain with Sambo, and arranged a scheme by which to draw the
attention of the passengers in a natural manner to the famous Palmyra
salve. Seldom or never had the risible nerves of the burly backwoodsmen
on board the Ploughboy steamer, been so enormously tickled as by the
discovery of this Yankee trick. The laughter was deafening, really
earsplitting; and was only brought to something like an end by the
appearance of the captain, who came with a petition from the lady
passengers, to the effect that the Yankee should not be too hardly dealt
with for his ingenious attempt to transfer his fellow-citizens' dollars
into his own pocket. Thereupon Badgers and Buckeyes, Wolverines and
Redhorses, abated their hilarity; and it was comical to see how these
rough tenants of the western forests proceeded, with all the gravity of
backwoods etiquette, to respond to the humanity of the ladies. In the
first place a deputation was chosen, consisting of two individuals, who
were charged to assure the ladies of the universal willingness to treat
the Yankee as tenderly as might be consistent with the nature of his
transgression; secondly, a commission was appointed for the examination
of the spurious wares. The articles that had been bought were produced
one after the other, their quality and value investigated, and then they
were either condemned and thrown overboar