Did he see more than he could tell? Was he trying to comfort his master? He had heard all the sweet converse of the old people on that last night, and perhaps he was saying in his poor best speech that all was well. Mammy Hannah and Uncle Israel, having discharged their responsibility, had crossed the River together. PART THIRD "Oh, it 's windy, Sweet Lucindy, On de river-bank to-night, An' de moontime Beats de noontime, When de trimblin' water 's white." So runs the plantation love-song, and so sang a great brown fellow as, with oars over his shoulder, he strolled down "Lovers' Lane," between the _bois d'arcs_, toward the Mississippi levee. He repeated it correctly until he neared the gourd-vine which marked the home of his lady, when he dropped his voice a bit and, eschewing rhyme for the greater value, sang: "Oh, it 's windy, Sweet Maria, On de river-bank to-night--" And slackening his pace until he heard footsteps behind him, he stopped and waited while a lithe yellow girl overtook him languidly. "Heah, you take yo' sheer o' de load!" he laughed as he handed her one of the oars. "Better begin right. You tote half an' me half." And as she took the oar he added, "How is you to-night, anyhow, sugar-gal?" While he put his right arm around her waist, having shifted the remaining oar to his left side, the girl instinctively bestowed the one she carried over her right shoulder, so that her left arm was free for reciprocity, to which it naively devoted itself. "I tell yer, hit 's fine an' windy to-night, sho' enough," he said. "De breeze on de levee is fresh an' cool, an' de skift she's got a new yaller-buff frock, an' she--" "Which skift? De _Malviny_? Is you give her a fresh coat o' paint? An' dat's my favoryte color--yaller-buff!" This with a chuckle. "No; dey ain't no _Malviny_ skift no mo'--not on dis plantation. I done changed her name." "You is, is yer? What is you named her dis time?" She was preparing to express surprise in the surely expected. Of course the boat was renamed the _Maria_. What else, in the circumstances? "I painted her after a lady-frien's complexion, a bright, clair yaller; but as to de name--guess!" said the man, with a lunge toward the girl, as the oar he carried struck a tree--a lunge which brought him into position to touch her ear with his lips while he repeated: "What you reckon I named her, sweetenin'?" "How should I know? I ain't in yo' heart!" "You ain't, ain't yer? Ef you ain't, I'd like mighty well to know who is. You's a reg'lar risidenter, you is--an' you knows it, too! Guess along, gal. What you think de boat's named?" "Well, ef you persises for me to guess, I'll say _Silv' Ann_. Dat 's a purty title for a skift."