some white mud."

"Yass'm." Another gleam of alarm and then a fine, awesome courage.
Robelia stared in panic.

"The nearest white mud--marl--in the State, Robelia, is forty miles
south of here."

"Is d'--dat so, mist'ess?"

"Yes, and so you also are travellers, Euonymus."

"Trav'--y'--yass'm, I--I reckon you mought call us trav'luz, in a
manneh, yass'm."

"Well, my next town is thirty miles north of----"

"Nawth!" Euonymus broke in, thinking furiously.

"Now, if instead of hiring just your sister and her daddy I should----"

"Yass'm!"

"Suppose I should take all four of you along, as though you were my
slaves----"

"De time bein'," Euonymus alertly slipped in.

"Certainly, that's all. How would that do?"