"Co'se he ain't. He gwine up to de pilot-house." "Humph, how _awful_ busy! That's just for grandeur. Go on." And while the leafy jaws of the chute drew them in and all the air was suddenly filled with the boat's sounds flung back from every rippling bough, tree top, and mass of draping vines, the nurse went on: "'Bout dat time yo' pa he git de hahdess ovehseeh he eveh did git, an' you can't 'spute de fact dat yo' pa he take' natchiully to hahd men, an' hahd men take natchiully to him. You kin say dat to his credits." "Yes," replied Ramsey, "yes," sighing, gesticulating, whimpering in ecstasies of sight as the walls of the watery lane cramped in to half its first width. They seemed to rush past of their own volition, while out beyond them on either hand the whole dense gray-green interwoven wilderness, with ceremonial stateliness, swung round on itself in slow time to the windy speed of the _Votaress_. XVII "IT'S A-HAPPMIN' YIT--TO WE ALL" Nevertheless, "Go on!" cried Ramsey. "How could the overseer be hard on Phyllis if Phyllis was mom-a's maid?" "Phyllis fo'ce' him to it! 'Caze all dat time, while she sweet as roses wid yo' ma--so's to keep in cahoots wid heh an' not have noth'n' to do wid niggehs o' no breed, pyo', half, quahteh, aw half-quahteh--she so wild to git back to y'uncle Dan dat she----" "And to leave mom-a! The goosy-goosy! What for?" "Well, for one thing, by bad luck, f'om fus' sight, de ovehseeh he _fancy_ Phyllis. Y'un'stan'----" "I don't! I don't want to--Go on!" "Humph! Phyllis un'stan'. She un'stan' so well an' so quick dat de fus' drizzly night when de rain 'u'd spile de trail--de scent--she up wid de chile an' putt out." "For my uncle Dan! Walnut Hills! Go on!" The moving scene was forgotten though the chute was widening again. "Well, de ovehseeh, o' co'se, he _got_ to run heh down an' fetch heh back. An' same time de creeks an' bayous----" "Oh, now, that's the same old----" "Yass, oh, yass, de same ole! So ole an' common dat you white folks--what has all de feelin's----" "Now, just hush! You don't know anything about it! Go on! Go on! The bayous were--what?" "Bank full, dat's all. One place Phyllis an' him nigh got swep' away an' he drap' de chile." "Oh!... Oh!... Oh!" "He bleeged to do it, he tell yo' ma, fo' to save Phyllis--what ain't want'n' to be save'. Whils' de chile--wuz--de chile wuz drownded." The old woman moved to rise, but the girl, with a new expression in her face, prevented her. "Go on! What did mom-a do?" "Lawd, what could she do--widout yo' pa?" "Oh, I'd have done something. What did Phyllis do?" "Phyllis? Dess th'ash' de bed fo' th'ee days--eyes a-blazin' murdeh; th'ee days and de Lawd know' how many night'. Yo' ma done one thing but you don't want to know dat, I reckon." "What did she do? Did she turn Whig?"