"Done gone right straight back to town."

"And that is all the satisfaction you can give me," cried Valentine, beside himself with distress.

"Yaw, yaw! I trought how I'd watch arter you, and tell you—'long as you'd like to hear it. Hish-sh-sh! Walley, stoop down here close, till I whisper to you."

"What now!" exclaimed Valentine, in new alarm, bending his ear to the huge negro's lips.

"Hish-sh-sh! Walley, I wish how it wur my 'ooman as had de yaller feber!"

"Wretch!"

"An' wish we-dem's white nigger oberseer had it too!"

"What do you mean?"

"And I wish dey bofe might die long of it."

"Wretch! I say again!"