Both them little white hands wasn't more than one handful for me, and I wasn't in no very great hurry tu let go, when I once got a good grip at 'em--she didn't seem tu mind my havin 'em, but sot down right between me and her brother, and there she sot a smilin right intu my eyes and a askin so arnest arter my helth that I couldn't but jest speak, my heart riz so. The critter really seemed tu have took a notion tu you, and marm. She was dreadful arnest tu know if I'd hearn from you, and how you stood the cold weather, and then consarn me! if she didn't ask how Captin Doolittle did, jest as if the old coot had a ben her own Par. By-am-by she bent over, and kinder whispered tu me, and sez she-- "I must go and speak tu the gentlemen there--you make me forget everything but yourself." With that she gin my fingers a leetle grip and went up tu the table. "You seem dull," sez she, "supposin you take a game at cards till supper is ready." "If Mr. Slick hain't no objection" sez her brother, a lookin at me kinder anxious. "His father's a deacon you know." They all turned on their chairs, and looked at me, as if a man that didn't like cards must a have been brought up in the woods. It made me feel kinder streaked--so sez I, "oh never seem tu mind me, I aint a skeered at a pack of cards, if my Par is." "Du you ever play," sez Miss Sneers, a smilin on me like a June sun. "Wal," sez I, speakin up crank, "I haint done much at it, since I was a little shaver, and used tu play high-low-jack and the game, with one of our workmen in Par's barn tu hum, but I was a considerable of a sneezer at it in them days, I recon." Miss Sneers's brother, sez he, "Wal then, supposin you take a hand here." I felt kinder bad at the idea of touching cards arter promisin you not tu, Par, when you ketched me at it and gin me that allfired lickin in the barn--but Miss Sneers stood right afore me, shuffling a bran new pack o' cards in them little white hands and a lookin at me so cunnin that I couldn't stand it--yet I felt sort o' loth and held back. "I'm afeared I've eenajest forgot how," sez I; a loungin back. "Oh never mind," sez one of the chaps in a red and green vest, and with checkered trousers on, "Miss Sneers will show you how." "Certainly," says the harnsome critter--a smilin right in my face again; "Shall I be your teacher, Mr. Slick?" "Jest so," sez I--"I'd jump down my own throat, if you on'y told me tu." With that I sot down by the table--crossed one leg a top of t'other and wiped my nose. Miss Sneers, she leaned her arm on my chair and the rest sot down. "Wal, what shall we play?" sez the chap in checkered trousers. "Oh, high-low-jack and the game--Mr. Slick understands that"--sez the rest, sort a larfin. I begun to rile a trifle--"I guess Mr. Slick knows a thing or two besides that," sez I; "he wasn't born in the woods tu be skared at owls!" sez I.