"
"She won't have nothin' to do with you, Jack; she's too well raised."
"She ain't had yit, Levin, but I'm follerin' of her aroun'. There ain't
no white gal in Princess Anne purty as them two house gals of Jedge
Custis's."
"Well, what kin you do with a nigger, Jack? You never kin marry her."
"Maybe I kin buy her, Levin."
"She ain't fur sale, Jack. Jedge Custis never sells no niggers. You
can't buy a nigger to save your life. When some of Jedge Custis's
niggers in Accomac run away he wouldn't let people hunt for 'em."
Jack Wonnell put his bell-crown to the side of his mouth again, grinned
hideously, and whispered:
"Kin you keep a secret?"
Levin nodded, yes.
"Hope a may die?"
"Hope I may die, Jack."'
"Jedge Custis is gwyn to be sold out by Meshach Milburn."
"What a lie, Jack!"
Levin let the tiller half go, and the _Ellenora Dennis_ swung round and
flapped her sails as if such news had driven all the wind out of them.
"Jack," Levin exclaimed, "Jimmy Phoebus says you've turned out a
reg'lar liar. Now I believe it, too."
"Hope I may die!" Jack Wonnell protested, "I never does lie: it's too
hard to find lies for things when people comes an' tells you, or you kin
see fur yourseff. Jimmy called me a liar fur sayin' Meshach Milburn was
gone into the Jedge's front do', but we saw him come out of it, didn't
we?"
"Yes, that was so; but this yer one is an awful lie.
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