d for her not to interrupt. In the dim light she made a
wry face at him and jingled again while her mother said: "On the
_Quakerezz_!--end of trial trip!--whiles landing at New Orleans! Me, I
was there, ad the landingg! Yes! on the boat of my 'usband, the
_Conqueror_--also trial trip--arrive' since only one hour biffo'!"

Ramsey, with her eyes roaming over Hugh, faintly kept up her laugh, yet
parallel with it her mother managed to continue: "Yes, that was in
eighteen-thirty-three, Janawary. Because that was the winter when
Jackson he conquer' Clay in the election and conquer' Calhoun in the
nullification, and tha'z the cause why my 'usband he name' his boat the
_Conqueror_. Ah, veree well I rimember that; how the _Quakerezz_ she
came cre-eepingg in, out of that fog, an' like the fog so still an'
white, cloze aggains' the _Conqueror_. And the firz' news they pazz----"

The old nurse reappeared, laid thin shawls on the mother and daughter,
and sat down on the deck close below Ramsey.

"Firz' news they pazz," resumed the speaker, "'tis that Captain
Courteney he's got with him his wife, from Philadelphia, and----"

Ramsey broke in merrily: "Was _she_ the Quakeress? Was the _Quakeress_
named for her?"

"Yes, and she's juz' have, they say, a li'l' son! An' my 'usband he
di'n' like that! Because----"

"But you had three little girls!" said Ramsey.

"Girl', they di'n' count! Because those girl', you know, they can' never
run those steam_boat_'."

"I don't see why," said Ramsey. Hugh might sit silent if he chose; her
silent sitting was over.

"They di'n' count," repeated the lady. "And so my 'usband he di'n' want
those Courteney' to be ahead of those Hayle' in having boys!"

"He little knew what was coming," said Ramsey, and wondered why the
remark was ignored, especially when----

"Me," said the pretty matron, "I was nearly ready to 'ave those twin',
but Gideon Hayle he di'n' know they was goin' be twin', an' he di'n'
know those twin' goin' be boys!" She gently laughed. The daughter stared
as if in no light--or shade--could those twins be a laughing matter, but
the mother spoke on gayly: "Never I 'ear my 'usband swear so hard--an'
so manny way'--like that day--at everything--everybody. Not because that
li'l babee--if that be all; but because he see that _boat_, that she's
the mo' fine boat, that _Quakerezz_, an' when they ripport her run from
Loui'ville, he's already affraid--to hisseff--that she's goin' to be the