't much diff'ence betwixt that kind of laughin'
an' cryin'.

"About that time, mother come in. Says she, 'An' be shore an' fetch the
baby, Becky.' The minnit mother said that, I know'd that she was the one
that told Becky what we had laid off to do. You-all know what happened
after that."

"We do that away," said George Rivers. "When I walked in on you, and
seen Becky an' the baby, I know'd purty well that the jig was up, but I
thought I'd set it out and see what'd happen."

"I never seen a baby do like that'n done that night," remarked Tom
Alford. "It laughed an' it crowed, an' helt out its han's to go to ever'
blessed feller in the crowd; an' Becky looked like she was the happiest
creetur in the world. I was the fust feller to cave, an' I didn't feel a
bit sheepish about it, neither. I rose, I did, an' says, 'Well, boys,
it's about my bedtime, an' I reckon I'll toddle along,' an' so I handed
the baby to the next feller, an' mosied off home."

"You did," said Britt Hanson, "an' by the time the boys got through
passin' the baby to the next feller, there wan't any feller left but me.
An' then the funniest thing happened that you ever seed. You know how
Becky was gwine on, laughin' an' talkin'. Well, the last man hadn't
hardly shet the door behind him, when Becky flopped down and put her
head in mother's lap, and cried like a baby. I'm mighty glad I ain't
married," Britt Hanson went on. "There ain't a man in the world that
knows a woman's mind. Why, Becky was runnin' on and laughin' jest like a
gal at picnic up to the minnit the last man slammed the door, and then,
down she went and began to boohoo. Now, what do you think of that?"

"I know one thing," remarked George Rivers--"the meaner a man is, the
quicker he gits the pick of the flock. The biggest fool in the world
allers gits the best or the purtiest gal."

Then there was a pause, as if the men were listening. "Well," said Tom
Alford, after awhile, "we ain't after the gals now. That Hotchkiss
feller goes out to Mahlon's by fust one road and then the other. You
know where Ike Varner lives; well, Ike's wife is a mighty good-lookin'
yaller gal, an' when Hotchkiss knows that Ike ain't at home, he goes by
that road. I got all that from a nigger that works for me. If Ike ain't
at home, he goes in for a drink of water, an' then he tells the yaller
gal how to convert Ike into bein' a radical--Ike, you know, don't flock
with that crowd. That's what the gal tells my nigg