k you got? S'pose I no
see you make him letter in de sand, wha we camp on Akansaw? You scratch
am name ebberywha; you got um on de big box inside Mass' Stebbins's
waggon. Ha! you better no let Mass' Stebbins see him name dar!"

I would at that instant have given my horse for a glance at either box
or book. But in another moment the necessity was gone; and the
revelation, though made by polluted lips, was not the less welcome to my
ears. What cared I whether the oracle was profane, so long as its
response echoed my most earnest desires?

"S'pose nobody read but youseff?" continued the mulatta, in the same
jeering tone. "S'pose nobody know what E.W. stand for? yah, yah!
S'pose dat ere don't mean Edwa'd Wa'ffeld? eh missy yella bar--dat him
name?" The young girl made no reply; but the crimson disc became widely
suffused over her cheek. With a secret joy I beheld its blushing
extension. "Yah, yah, yah!" continued her tormentor, "you may see um
shadda in da water--dat all you ebba see ob Edwa'd Wa'ffeld. Whoebbar
dat ere coon may be, you nebbar set you' eyes on him 'gain--nebba!" A
dark shade quickly overcast the crimson, betokening that the words gave
pain. My pleasure was in like proportion, but inversely. "You fool,
missy' golding har? you' better gone 'long wi' de young dragoon offica
who want take you--dat am, if you must had man all to youseff. Yah,
yah, yah! Nebba mind, gal! you get husban' yet. Mass' Stebbins he find
you husban'--he got one for you a'ready--waitin' dar in de Mormon city;
you soon see! Husban' got fifty odder wife! Yah, yah, yah!"

Words appeared upon the lips of Lilian--low murmured and but half
uttered. I could not make out what they were; but they appeared not to
be a reply to the speeches that had been addressed to her. Rather were
they the involuntary accompaniment to an expression of peculiar anguish,
that at that moment revealed itself on her features. The mulatta did
not seem either to expect, or care for an answer: for on giving
utterance to the fiendish insinuation, she turned upon her slippered
heels, and hobbled back towards the camp. I held my face averted as she
was passing near where I stood. I feared that she might be attracted to
stop and examine me; and I had a motive for wishing her to keep on. Her
curiosity, however, did not appear to be very excitable. Such as it
was, it evolved itself in a comic fashion--as I could tell by the coarse
"Yah, yah, yah!" th