f mine!' I assure you he did, Miss Hill."

"I doan' take no erbuse ner nigger talk in this yere house, where I'm
takin' Timothis' place, an' where my bawss is mighty high ercount, no,
not fom consterbles nor no nuther white tresh. I didn't go foh ter call
Mistah Rigby _it_, Miss Tryphosy, I swan ter grashus I didn't. I
spressed the pinion as all the comperny as isn't ladies is it and so it
is it."

"Ef you go a ittin' of me Maguffin," struck in Ben, "I'm buzz sawed and
shingled of I don't hit you back fer what you're ma guvin us." Then he
opened up his mouth and laughed, and Serlizer laughed, and the Hill
girls. Even Maguffin displayed his ivories, and remarked: "Mistah Tonah,
foh a gennelman what ain't trabbled none, yoh'se mighty smaht."

"Oh, Serlizer," said Ben, "we don't go traavellin' much; we ain't like
the rollin' stones as don't gaythyer no mawss."

"When the cunnel and me was ridin' ter Tronter, laast Sat'day,"
continued Mr. Maguffin, "the cunnel he began egspashuatin' on the things
he see. 'That there mawss' says he, 'at Hogg's Holler, minds me ob two
coloured men was habin' a counterbessy on they bawsses. Says one of the
gennelmen, "My bawss," (the cunnel says massa, but that's a name I doan'
take to) "my bawss says he ain't like yoh bawss, trabellin' around all
the time and gatherin' no mawss." "No," said the other coloured
gennelman, "but my bawss gathers what yoh bawss want mighty bad, and
that's a heap ob polish."'"

"For polish," remarked Constable Rigby, turning to Tryphena, "for
polish, Miss Hill, commend me to an English army officer."

"My bawss," said Maguffin, "is an officer and a gennelman, and yoh
cayn't beat him foh polish nohow."

"There are no officers and no soldiers in America," replied the
pensioner.

"Oh, Mr. Rigby," interrupted Tryphosa, "I remember reading in my history
that the American soldiers beat the British army many times in the
Revolutionary War."

"Flim-flam. Miss Tryphosa Hill, garbled reports! The British army never
has been beaten, never can be beaten. I belonged to the British army,
Miss Hill, I beg pardon, Miss Tryphosa, and know what I assert from
experience."

"Le'ss stop this jaw and have a game o' keerds," suggested Serlizer.

Ben seconded his lady love's proposal, and thought a game of euchre
would pass away the time. The constable said euchre was no game. There
was only one game at cards, and that was whist. The man or woman who
could not play whist was