he fisherman, seizing upon the largest steel pen to
be found, and grinding it on the bottom of a bronze inkstand. Clorinda
put both hands to her mouth, and would have cried out; but, remembering
how few teeth she had to be set on edge, thought better of it, and stood
in glum silence while Caleb made his preparations.

That remarkable functionary had a piece of business before him which
threatened to task the resources of his genius to their full extent, but
he was not the man to shrink from the responsibility which his desire to
retain a high place in the powerful Clorinda's good-will had induced him
to accept.

"Now, then," said Caleb, giving his chair another hitch, dipping his pen
afresh into the inkstand, and holding it suspended over the paper, with
a threatening drop slowly collecting on the nib. "Now we'll get under
weigh just as soon as you give the signal."

"Tak car ob de ink!" shrieked Clorinda, pulling the paper from under his
hand in time to preserve it from the great blot of ink that descended on
the table-cover instead. "Dat's a purty splotch, now, ain't it; yer a
nice hand, Caleb Benson!"

"Taint much, nobody'll ever notice it," said Caleb, wiping it off with
his coat-sleeve. "Don't raise a breeze about nothin', Clorindy."

"Don't talk to me 'bout breezes," she retorted, in an irritated tone,
for Clorinda, I am sorry to say, had not even a fair portion of the
small stock of patience which usually falls to our sex. "I 'clar to
goodness dere ain't nothin' so stupid as a man. I jis hate de hull sect
like pison, I duz."

"Oh, no you don't, Clorindy," he replied, "you hain't got so old yet but
what you can hold your own with the youngest of 'em when there's a fancy
mulatter chap round."

"What doz yer mean by ole!" cried Clorinda. "I tells you what, Caleb
Benson, ef yer only undertuk this job to be a aggrawatin' and insultin'
me, you and I's done! I ain't gwine to stand sich trash, now I tells
yer! Is dis yer thanks fur all I'se done? Who got ye de run ob de house,
I'd like to know; who sot ye up for selling better fish than anybody in
de neighborhood; who nebber said nothin' when de soap-fat all
disappeared, and you said it had melted in de sun; who fixed up
mince-pies fur you; who--"

There is no telling to what extent Clorinda might have carried her
revelations, but the old man interrupted her with all the excuses he
could think of at so short notice.

"I was just funning, Clorindy; don't go off