"I'll say anything you wish me to, good old Toby! only give me a
chance."

"Den say you _has_ seen her."

"I _has seen her_," repeated Penn.

"O, bress you, Massa Penn! And she ar safe--say dat too!"

"_She ar safe_," said Penn, laughing.

"Bress ye for dat!" And Toby, weeping with joy, kissed the young man's
hand again and again. "And ye knows whar she ar?"

"Yes, Toby! So now get up: don't be kneeling on the rocks here in the
rain!"

"Jes' one word more! Say ye got her and ol' Massa Villars safe stowed
away, and ye'll take me to see 'em; den dis ol' nigger'll bress you and
de Lord and dem, and be willin' fur to die! only say dat, massa!"

"Ah! did I promise to say all you wished?"

"Yes, you did, you did so, Massa Penn!" cried Toby, triumphantly.

"Then I suppose I must say that, too. So come, you dear old simpleton!
Cudjo!" to the proprietor of the cave, who just then put out his head to
reconnoitre, "Cudjo! Here is your friend Toby, come to pay his master
and mistress a visit!"

"What business he got hyar?" said Cudjo, crossly. "We's hab all de wuld,
and creation besides, comin' bime-by!"

"Cudjo! You knows ol' Toby, Cudjo!" said Toby, in the softest and most
conciliatory tone imaginable.

"Nose ye!" Cudjo snuffed disdainfully. "Yes! and wish you'd keep fudder
off!"

"Why, Cudjo! don't you 'member Toby? Las' time I seed you! ye 'member
dat, Cudjo!"

"Don't 'member nuffin'!"

"'Twan't you, den, got inter my winder, and done skeert me mos' t' def
'fore I found out 'twas my ol' 'quaintance Cudjo, come fur Massa Penn's
clo'es! Dat ar wan't you, hey?" And Toby's honest indignation cropped
out through the thin crust of deprecating obsequiousness which he still
thought it politic to maintain.

Penn got under the shelter of the ledge, and waited for the dispute to
end. It was evident to him that Cudjo was not half so ill-natured as he
appeared; but, feeling himself in a position of something like official
importance, he had the human weakness to wish to make the most of it.

"Your massa and missis bery well off. Dey in my house. No room dar for
you. Ain't wanted hyar, nohow!" turning his back very much like a
personage of lighter complexion, clad in brief authority.

"Ain't wanted, Cudjo? You don't know what you's sayin' now. Whar my ol'
massa and young missis is, dar ol' Toby's wanted. Can't lib widout me,
dey can't! Ol' massa wants me to nuss him. Ye don't tink--you's a nigger
widout no kind ob 's