"An' her a-translat'n' for him!" said Ned, fancying the scene, with the senator, under his mask, "a-gritt'n' his tushes!" and Watson, to heighten it, told of Hugh and the actor at one head of the double stair, and Mrs. Gilmore and Ramsey at the other--"a-chirpin' him on, an' the whole b'iler deck, ladies and gents, takin' it in, solid!" The senator was long-headed. "Yes, an' yit Hugh's throwed him fair jest by main strength an' awk'ardness." "I dunno!" said Ned. "It wuz long-headed, too, fo' Hugh an' the play-acto's to give him the job." "It wuz long-headed in her who put 'em up to it." "Oh, look here! _She_ didn't do that, did she?" "'Less'n I'm a liar," replied Watson, eyes front. "Hunh! Wonder which! Say, Wats'; on the b'iler deck--did she have on this gownd she's a-wearin' now?" "No," said Watson, tardily, with eyes still up-stream. "Not wast'n' yo' words," said the inquirer. "No." "A short answer turneth away wrath, I s'pose." "It turneth away discussion o' ladies' gownds." "Lard! I don't discuss 'em to excess. Noticed hern--its upper works--an' a flounce or two--an' sort o' wondered as to the rest of it, how much water it's a-drawin'. Anything li-bell-ious about that?" "No, considerin' the source." Ned slipped from the bench to go, but Watson looked back with a light beckon of the head and he turned to the wheel. Thence he glanced down over the breast-board, over the forward eaves of the texas, down to the skylight roof and upon several persons. First, the boat's commander. He was leaving his seat at the approach, from the head of a boiler-deck stair, of Madame Hayle and the doctor. On the skylight roof, near the bell, were the two players, just greeting Hugh as from the other side he reached the deck and stepped up to their level. On the same roof, midway between these and the front of the texas, were the squire's sister and her husband returning from their search for shade. And lastly, close after them, came Ramsey, a source of general astonishment. For the gown she was in and whose lower possibilities had aroused Ned's avowed and Watson's concealed interest was her mother's and swept the deck. Madame Hayle grew more beautiful as with a play of indignation which wholly failed to disguise her pleasure she cried: "By what _per_-mission? by what _per_-mission have you pud--my--clothes?" The girl would have flown to her arms but the doctor forbade, and for second choice she set up a dainty tripping to and fro athwartships; dipping, rising, skipping, swaying, bridling, like a mocking-bird on a garden wall. It made Ned and Watson themselves worth seeing. Professional dignity set their faces like granite though every vein seethed with a riot of laughter. But the laughter's chief cause was not Ramsey. "Look at Hugh," muttered Watson, gently drawing down the wheel for the _Votaress_ to sweep round into a northward reach at whose head Natchez Island would presently show itself. To look at Hugh took nerve, but in a moment----