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230 you 're about the most reckless creature that ever set on hog leather."

"The devil you say!" said Ump.

"That 's what I say," continued the tavern-keeper, waving his arm to add fury to his bad declamation. "That 's what I say. Suppose you'd got little Quiller drownded?"

The hunchback seemed to consider this possibility with the gravity of one pointed suddenly to some defect in his life. He replaced the saucer on the table, locked his fingers and thrust his thumbs together.

"If had got little Quiller drownded," he began, "then the old women could n't a said when he growed up, 'Eh, little Quiller did n't amount to much after all. I said he would n't come to no good when I used to see him goin' by runnin' his horse.' An' when he got whiskers to growin' on his jaw, flat-nose niggers fishin' along the creek could n't a' cussed an' said, 'There goes old skinflint Quiller. I wish he could n't swallow till he give me half his land.' An' when he got old an' wobbly on his legs, tow-headed brats a-waitin' for his money could n't a-p'inted their fingers at him