gone by, I shouldn't wonder if some of them hadn't got me in tow.
But, I ain't going to give it up yet. I don't forget the old chap's
knocking me down in the dark behind my back, as though I'd been no
better than a woodchuck or a skunk."

"How it feel, Missa Basset?" inquired Primus, with a grin. "Did de old
man strike wid de soft side or de hard side ob de cudgel?"

"You needn't show your ivory," said the constable, whom the
remembrance of his misfortune irritated; "I wish to conscience you'd
felt it yourself; you'd have known, then, without the need of asking
questions."

"Golly! Missa Basset," exclaimed Primus. "You tink nobody hab feeling
but yousef. You gib my arm sich a winch when de ole man kick you
behind, or knock you ober (I nebber know which) dat I feel him now."

"He didn't kick me," said Basset, indignantly. "'Twas a regular
assault with a club, I tell you."

"Well, I shouldn't like sich salt on my shoulder, aldo dey say, salt
bery good to keep de wound from catching cold."

"I tell you what, darkey," cried the constable, losing patience at the
other's sneers. "You talk like an old fool. If you hain't got anything
pleasanter to say, you might as well shut up."

"Yes, I be an old fool," said Primus, as if speaking to himself, "and
dis is all de tank I git from dis white man. I depose my life on de
ribber. I git a'most murdered when de ghost kick him behind; he break