"
"Characteristic," she heard the planter say to himself.
"And sure enough," the tale went on, "just as his forefeet hit the
bank--" But there Hugh's messenger reappeared, and as Hugh listened to
his murmured report the deer's historian avoided oblivion only by
asking:
"Well, Mr. Courteney, after all, what was it?"
"Tell the bishop," said Hugh to the boy.
"'T'uz a man, suh," the servant announced, and when the ladies exclaimed
he amended, "leas'wise a deckhan', suh."
"Thank Heaven!" thought several, not because it was a man but because
the bells jingled again and the moving boat resumed her own blessed
sounds. But the bishop was angry--too angry for table talk. He had his
suspicions.
"Did deckhands make all that row?"
"Oh, no, suh; not in de beginnin', suh."
"Wasn't there trouble with the deck passengers?"
"Yassuh, at fus'; at fus', yassuh; wid dem and dey young leadeh. Y'see,
dey be'n so long aboa'd ship dey plumb stahve fo' gyahden-sass an'
'count o' de sickness de docto' won't 'low 'em on'y some sawts. But back
yondeh on sho' dey's some wile mulbe'y trees hangin' low wid green
mulbe'ys, an' comin' away f'om de grave dey make a break fo' 'em. But de
mate he head' 'em off. An' whilse de leadeh he a-jawin' at de mate on
sho', an' likewise at de clerk on de b'ileh deck an' at the cap'm on de
roof----"
"In a foreign tongue," prompted the bishop, to whom that seemed the
kernel of the offense.
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