UP STKEAM: OX THE RED RIVER. 389 



gentlemen here, as respectable ladies and gentlemen 

 as can be found anywhere ay, even to Boston, the 

 cradle of our independence and they, might say Boe ! 

 Boe ! if they knew all. In them two chests are a 

 hundred tin boxes and glass phials ; and if only 

 twenty of them are damaged, there is more injury 

 done than your hide could pay for, if it were twenty 

 times as thick and twenty times as vallyable as it is. 

 Your whole carcass ain't worth one of the boxes of 

 that precious 'intment. Ah, Sambo ! " 



" Boe ! Boe ! " howled Sambo in reply. 



" What's the palaver about ? " growled some of the 

 Badgers and Buckeyes ; " open the chests, and you'll 

 see what harm's done." 



"D'ye hear, Sambo?" cried the Yankee with the 

 same immovable countenance ; " you're to hold yer 

 tongue, the gentlemen say ; they're tired of yer noise, 

 and no wonder. What's the use of boohooin' away 

 at that rate 1 Helps you nothin' ; you desarve what 

 you've got. I'll thank you for your long knife, 

 mister. That'll do. That opens it, cuts in like rael 

 steel; better it should be into hard wood than soft 

 flesh. There they are, then, and not broken ; on- 

 hurt, without a spot or a crack. Sing praises to the 

 Lord ! psalms and hymns of rejoicin' not a phial 

 broke, nor a box smashed ! Praised be the Lord ! I 

 say ag'in. Since they are safe, it don't matter if 

 twenty shoulder-blades and ankle-bones are put out. 

 Verily the mercy of Heaven shall be made manifest, 



