They'll
all fight their weight in black wildcats to git her."
"Very, very abrupt proposition, Patty; not conservative at all. What's
the matter with you, dame, to-day. Van Dorn not lucky, heigh?"
He gave her a vitreous smile and watched her over his round paunch, on
which a crystal watch-seal hung, like a more human eye than his own. Her
color began to rise.
"I'm mad," said Patty Cannon; "don't worry me; don't Jew me! Do you
mind? Yes, Van Dorn has been whipped--by niggers, too. Will you pay my
price or not?"
"Tut, tut, good woman! What can I want with a white girl. It wouldn't
look conservative at all in Baltimore."
Patty Cannon stamped her foot.
"Don't rouse me with any of your hypocritical cant, Cunnil McLane! What
have you been teachin' that child to read an' write fur--out of your
Bible, too? What do you bring her presents fur, and hang around us when
we know you despise us all, except fur the black folks we can sell you
cheap? Haven't I been sold to men like you time and again before I was a
woman, and don't I know the sneaking pains that old men take to look
benevolent when youth an' beauty is fur sale; and how they pet it to
keep it pure fur their own selfish enjoyment? God knows I do!"
"Patty, you shock me!" the rubicund gentleman observed. "I have always
found you conservative before. Now, go and send sweet Hulda here, and,
for Heaven's sake, Patty, don't reveal this bargain to her.
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