''D—n the child!' said Meminger; 'do you suppose I want two months children in my pen? If you do, you are cursedly mistaken. What will you take for the woman alone?'
''I don't very well like to part them,' said the man hesitatingly, 'and I promised my wife I wouldn't. But if you won't buy the child—'
''I tell you I won't buy the child, and that's enough,' broke in Meminger.
''—— I'll take seven hundred dollars for the woman.'
'Meminger threw his bridle-rein to me, and slid down from his horse to look at the girl. He stepped up to her, caught her upper lip with one hand and her lower with the other, and opened her mouth, and examined her teeth in the same manner that you or I, Owen, would a horse. Then he took her by the arm, twirled her round, struck her roughly on her back, felt the muscle of her fore-arm, her thigh, and calf; then stood back and examined her all over a moment, and said:
''I suppose she is all right? I don't want her, but I am going right home, and I can take her along as well as not, and I'll give you six hundred dollars for her. If you want it, say so at once, for I an't going to stand here talking all day!'
'The man seemed reluctant to take the sum offered—said she was worth more, and he ought to give six hundred and fifty for her.
'Meminger cut him short with a savage oath, telling him that if he wasn't going to accept the six hundred, to say so, for he would not stand there in the cold any longer for the six hundred dollars, niggar and all, and he moved toward his horse as if to remount.
''Well, then,' said the man, who seemed determined to sell her at some price, 'take her at six hundred if that's all you'll give.'
'Meminger drew out a blank bill of sale—that's the way they do it, you know, have to have it in writing—and said to me: