THE SKIN OF THE TIGER-CAT. 159 



" Miss Lou, I 've been a-wantin' to see you." 



A pause followed. 



" That is, you don't see me every day." 



" Yes, oh ! yes ; but then it aren't every time that a man wants 

 to see — I mean it aren't — I mean sometimes a man wants mighty 

 bad to see some 'un, and talk to 'em, an' sometimes I want to see 

 you more 'an others." 



" Well ! " said Miss Jackson, moving on slowly toward the 

 boat-landing. 



" End ef I was the Doctor, I could say anything, and talk right 

 through a board fence; he's oncommon nice at talkin', he is," 

 said Mike, looking earnestly at his partner's face, who looked sea- 

 ward, but did not reply to this expression of opinion. "Thar's 

 somethin' I want to say, Miss Lou," continued Mike, " end I 'd a 

 leetle reether say it to you than to any o' them folks there, for 

 they wunt believe it, they wunt." 



" Well, Mike, what is it ? " 



" Wall, it 's this hyur ; you 'd better get yer father to quit that 

 plantation of his, and move up the country a leetle, or else down 

 to Tampa, fur things ain't all right 'bout hyur." 



" What is there wrong ? " 



" Wall, there 's somethin' wrong with them copper-head snakes, 

 the Injins. Yer can't see it yet, but things ain't right, and yer all 

 so far away from everybody at the house that no one kin help you. 

 Yer negroes ain't worth nothin' of any, 'count in case of a scrim- 

 mage, and yer father ain't over-liked in the swamp. Thar's 

 nothin' wrong yet, and maybe won't be at all, but they are jist 

 like painters, and yer don't know where to find 'em." 



" Why, what have you seen wrong ? " said the young girl, 

 stopping by her boat, and looking at Mike inquiringly. 



" Nary a thing, only them fellers have been down here, and I 

 don't like it." 



" But they come to the house, why not here ? You are harsh 

 in your opinion of them." 



" 'Cause they have nothin' to call 'em here. They 've been 

 about without showin' themselves, and that's suspicious. They 

 knew we were here, for they can see our trails all about, yet they 



