Behold, then, the candles lighted, the fire stimulated to the burning point in the grate, and our three worthies seated round a table, well spread with all the accessories to good fellowship enumerated before.

Haley began a pathetic recital of his peculiar troubles.  Loker shut up his mouth, and listened to him with gruff and surly attention.  Marks, who was anxiously and with much fidgeting compounding a tumbler of punch to his own peculiar taste, occasionally looked up from his employment, and, poking his sharp nose and chin almost into Haley’s face, gave the most earnest heed to the whole narrative.  The conclusion of it appeared to amuse him extremely, for he shook his shoulders and sides in silence, and perked up his thin lips with an air of great internal enjoyment.

“So, then, ye’r fairly sewed up, an’t ye?” he said; “he! he! he!  It’s neatly done, too.”

“This yer young-un business makes lots of trouble in the trade,” said Haley, dolefully.

“If we could get a breed of gals that didn’t care, now, for their young uns,” said Marks; “tell ye, I think ’t would be ’bout the greatest mod’rn improvement I knows on,”—­and Marks patronized his joke by a quiet introductory sniggle.

“Jes so,” said Haley; “I never couldn’t see into it; young uns is heaps of trouble to ’em; one would think, now, they’d be glad to get clar on ’em; but they arn’t.  And the more trouble a young un is, and the more good for nothing, as a gen’l thing, the tighter they sticks to ’em.”

“Wal, Mr. Haley,” said Marks, “’est pass the hot water.  Yes, sir, you say ’est what I feel and all’us have.  Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—­a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite considerable smart,—­and she had a young un that was mis’able sickly; it had a crooked back, or something or other; and I jest gin ’t away to a man that thought he’d take his chance raising on ’t, being it didn’t cost nothin’;—­never thought, yer know, of the gal’s taking’ on about it,—­but, Lord, yer oughter seen how she went on.  Why, re’lly, she did seem to me to valley the child more ’cause ’t was sickly and cross, and plagued her; and she warn’t making b’lieve, neither,—­cried about it, she did, and lopped round, as if she’d lost every friend she had.  It re’lly was droll to think on ’t.  Lord, there ain’t no end to women’s notions.”

“Wal, jest so with me,” said Haley.  “Last summer, down on Red river, I got a gal traded off on me, with a likely lookin’ child enough, and his eyes looked as bright as yourn; but, come to look, I found him stone blind.  Fact—­he was stone blind.  Wal, ye see, I thought there warn’t no harm in my jest passing him along, and not sayin’ nothin’; and I’d got him nicely swapped off for a keg o’ whiskey; but come to get him away from the gal, she was jest like a tiger.  So ’t was before we started, and I hadn’t got my gang chained up; so what should she do but ups on a cotton-bale, like a cat, ketches a knife from one of the deck hands, and, I tell ye, she made all fly for a minit, till she saw ’t wan’t no use; and she jest turns round, and pitches head first, young un and all, into the river,—­went down plump, and never ris.”