ine catch me, sho_ly_, I des
drap down in de darkes' cawneh I kin fin'; dat's what I done, yas, suh.
He des keep on agoin', _spat, spat, spat_, an' when he come out front de
_Gineral Jackson_ over yondeh, one dem boys what's wukkin' on her, _he_
tuk out, an' dat white man des tu'n hisself loose an' mek his laigs go
lak he gwine shek 'um plum off; yas, sah!"

Griswold suffered another lapse into the humanities when he saw the list
of participants in his act growing steadily with each fresh
complication, and he said, "I'm sorry for that, Mose."

"Nev' you min' 'bout dat, Cap'm. Dat boy he been doin' somepin to mek
him touchous, 'less'n he nev' tuk out dat-a-way, no, suh!"

"Maybe so. Well, we can't help it now. Here is the other twenty I
promised you."

"T'ank you, suh; t'ank you kin'ly Cap'm. You-all's des de whites' white
man ev' I knowned. You sholy is."

"What are you going to do with yourself, now?" Griswold inquired.

"Who, me? I's gwine up yondeh to dat resteraw an' git me de bigges'
mess o' fried fish I kin hol'--dat's me; yas, suh."

"M'Grath says he'll pay you levee wages if you'll come back to the boat
and help get the cargo out of her."

"Reckon I ain't gwine back to de _Julie_: no, suh. Dat'd be gittin' rich
too fas' for dis niggeh. Good-night, Cap'm Gravitt; an' t'ank you
kin'ly, suh."

Griswold went his way musing upon the little object-lesson afforded by
the negro's determination. Here was a fellow man who was one of the
feeblest of the under dogs in the great social fight; and with money
enough in hand to give him at least a breathing interval, his highest
ambition was a mess of fried fish.

The object-lesson was suggestive, if not specially encouraging, and
Griswold made a mental note of it for further study when the question of
present safety should be more satisfactorily answered.

XIII

GRISWOLD EMERGENT

Half an hour or such a matter after the hue-and-cry runaway from the
curb in front of the saloon two doors above, Mr. Abram Sonneschein,
dealer in second-hand clothing and sweat-shop bargains, saw a possible
customer drifting across the street, and made ready the grappling hooks
of commercial enterprise.

The drifter was apparently a passenger from some lately arrived
steamboat; but even to the trained eye of so acute an observer as Mr.
Sonneschein he presented difficulties in the way of classification. Only
temporarily, however. The long-tailed coat and the wide-brimmed, so