ell, Larkin, let's get through with this. Name
your lowest price for the lot.'

'P'raps you'd as lief throw out the boy. I'll take off three hundred fur
him.'

'Oh! doan't ye leab Ally, massa; buy Ally too, massa; oh do, good
massa!' he cried, with an expression of keen agony such as I had never
till then seen in a child. He was a 'likely' little fellow, with a
round, good-natured face, and a bright, intelligent eye; and though I
presumed Preston felt no particular interest in him, I thought of his
mother, depriving herself of sleep and rest to save up the price of her
boy, and I said: 'No, I have taken a liking to him; I'll take the whole
or none.'

'Well, then, seventeen fifty, not a dime less. Thet's only a hun'red
profit.'

'Will a hundred profit satisfy you?'

'Yes, bein' as you's a friend of the ole man, and I hain't had 'em only
four days.'

I quietly sat down on the bench, beside the little girl, and taking her
hand in mine, and playing with her small fingers in a careless way,
said: 'Well, I will give you a hundred profit; but, Larkin,' and I
looked him directly in the eye and smiled, 'you cannot intend to come
the Yankee over me! I am one of them myself, you know, and understand
such things. These people cost you twelve hundred--not a mill more.'

'The h----ll they did! P'raps ye mean ter say I lie?' he replied, in an
excited tone, his face reddening with anger.

'No, I don't. I merely state a fact, and you know it. So keep cool.'

'It's a d----d lie, sir. I doan't keer who says it,' he exclaimed, now
really excited.

'Come, come, my fine fellow,' I said, rising and facing him; 'skip the
hard words, and don't get up too much steam--it might hurt you, _or your
friends_.'

'What d'ye mean? Speak out, Mr. Kirke. If ye doan't want ter buy 'em,
say so, and hev done with it.' This was said in a more moderate tone. He
had evidently taken my meaning, and feared he had gone too far.

'I mean simply this. This woman and the children cost you twelve hundred
dollars four days ago. Preston wants them--_must_ have them--and he will
give thirteen hundred for them, and pay you in a year, with interest;
that's all.'

'Well, come now, Mr. Kirke, thet's liberal, arn't it! S'pose I doan't
take it, what then?'

'Then Roye, Struthers & Co. will stop your supplies, _or I'll stop
their's_--that's 'SARTIN',' and I laughed good-humoredly as I said it.

'Well, yer one on 'em, Mr. Kirke, thet's a fact;' and then he ad