"Wuss!--ef wuss kin be. She tu'n'--dat day--Abolitionless. Ain't neveh tell me, but--you ax heh. Mebbe it wa'n't all 'count o' Phyllis. Mebbe it wa'n't plumb hoss-sensible nohow. But dat day-- You ax heh!" Ramsey flashed: "What are you telling me all this for?" "Lawd! An' how many time' is you say, 'Go on'?" "I meant about the _Quakeress_." "Well, ain't dis de story o' de _Quak'ess_? When----" "Stop! I'll tell it to you. I see it all." "You! Y'ain't see it de quahteh o' half a quahteh. Dat story is a-happmin' yit--to we-all--on dis boat!" The breakfast-bell rang again, and Hugh started down from the pilot-house. But Ramsey would ask the old woman one more question: "Is it happening to him, too?" "Co'se, him; all o' us; twins an' all. When us brung Phyllis down de riveh yo' ma wuz dead ag'in sellin' heh, an' when us git win' dat de Co'teneys want' a nuss yo' pa he dat glad he snap his fingehs. 'Us'll rent Phyllis to 'em!' he say. 'Dey's Hendry Clay Whigs; dey'd ought to treat heh fine.' (Dat wuz his joke.) An' yo' ma make answeh: 'Ef dey don't, us kin take heh back! Betteh dat dan sell heh! Nobody o' de Hayle blood shayn't do dat whils' I live.'" Hugh was near. "Good morning!" sang Ramsey. They met at the head of a stair. She turned away and looked out beyond the jack-staff as radiantly as if she had just alighted on the planet. The chute was astern. A new reach of open water came, sun-gilt, to meet them, and on either hand the low, monotonous green shores crept southward a mile apart. She faced again to Hugh. "Isn't this God's country?" "In a way," the youth admitted with a scant smile. She glanced about. "Most beautiful river in the world!" she urged, and when he faltered she cried: "Oh, you're prejudiced!" She turned half away. "I know one thing; I wouldn't let _my_ grandfather prejudice _me_." A new thought struck her: "Oh!... I've just heard all about it!... And it helps to explain--you!" He enjoyed the personality. "Heard all about what?" "Phyllis!" She jerked up and down. His smile vanished; his lips set; he turned red. Ramsey was even more taken aback than he or old Joy. She knew the pilot was looking down on her, the mate glancing back at her. Yet she laughed and prattled and all at once frowningly said: "But one thing I just can't make out! What on earth had the _Hayle blood_ to do with any right or wrong of selling Phyllis? Do you know?" Hugh reddened worse, and in that instant, outblushing him, she saw the truth. "Never mind!" she cried. "Oh, did I stop you? Go on!--I--I mean go on down--to breakfast!" "Won't you go first?" "No, thank you; go on! Please, go on!" Glancing up to the pilot and catching his amused eye, she pointed distantly ahead. "What is that high bank on the--the stabboard shore?" she asked him. "Why"--his tobacco caused but a moment's delay--"nothing much. They call that Port Hudson."