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Help it? why, I buys a gal, and if shes got a young un to be sold, I jest walks up and puts my fist to her face, and says, Look here, now, if you give me one word out of your head, Ill smash yer face in. I wont hear one wordnot the beginning of a word. I says to em, This yer young uns mine, and not yourn, and youve no kind o business with it. Im going to sell it, first chance; mind, you dont cut up none o yer shines about it, or Ill make ye wish yed never been born. I tell ye, they sees it ant no play, when I gets hold. I makes em as whist as fishes; and if one on em begins and gives a yelp, why, and Mr. Loker brought down his fist with a thump that fully explained the hiatus. That ars what ye may call emphasis, said Marks, poking Haley in the side, and going into another small giggle. Ant Tom peculiar? he! he! I say, Tom, I spect you make em understand, for all niggers heads is woolly. They dont never have no doubt o your meaning, Tom. If you ant the devil, Tom, you s his twin brother, Ill say that for ye! Tom received the compliment with becoming modesty, and began to look as affable as was consistent, as John Bunyan says, with his doggish nature. Haley, who had been imbibing very freely of the staple of the evening, began to feel a sensible elevation and enlargement of his moral faculties,a phenomenon not unusual with gentlemen of a serious and reflective turn, under similar circumstances. Wal, now, Tom, he said, ye relly is too bad, as I alays have told ye; ye know, Tom, you and I used to talk over these yer matters down in Natchez, and I used to prove to ye that we made full as much, and was as well off for this yer world, by treatin on em well, besides keepin a better chance for comin in the kingdom at last, when wust comes to wust, and thar ant nothing else left to get, ye know. Boh! said Tom, dont I know?dont make me too sick with any yer stuff,my stomach is a leetle riled now; and Tom drank half a glass of raw brandy. I say, said Haley, and leaning back in his chair and gesturing impressively, Ill say this now, I alays meant to drive my trade so as to make money on t fust and foremost, as much as any man; but, then, trade ant everything, and money ant everything, cause we s all got souls. I dont care, now, who hears me say it,and I think a cussed sight on it,so I may as well come out with it. I blieve in religion, and one of these days, when Ive got matters tight and snug, I calculates to tend to my soul and them ar matters; and so whats the use of doin any more wickedness than s relly necessary?it dont seem to me its t all prudent. Tend to yer soul! repeated Tom, contemptuously; take a bright lookout to find a soul in you,save yourself any care on that score. If the devil sifts you through a hair sieve, he wont find one. Why, Tom, youre cross, said Haley; why cant ye take it pleasant, now, when a fellers talking for your good? Stop that ar jaw o yourn, there, said Tom, gruffly. I can stand most any talk o yourn but your pious talk,that kills me right up. After all, whats the odds between me and you? Tant that you care one bit more, or have a bit more feelinits clean, sheer, dog meanness, wanting to cheat the devil and save your own skin; dont I see through it? And your gettin religion, as you call it, arter all, is too pisin mean for any crittur;run up a bill with the devil all your life, and then sneak out when pay time comes! Bob! Come, come, gentlemen, I say; this isnt business, said Marks. Theres different ways, you know, of looking at all subjects. Mr. Haley is a very nice man, no doubt, and has his own conscience; and, Tom, you have your ways, and very good ones, too, Tom; but quarrelling, you know, wont answer no kind of purpose. Lets go to business. Now, Mr. Haley, what is it?you want us to undertake to catch this yer gal? The gals no matter of mine,shes Shelbys; its only the boy. I was a fool for buying the monkey! |
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