stared at him with wonder--first, as to what such as he could want at
the clearing, and second, if he was crazy enough to think there was a
conveyance. From being a petted cabin boy, Ted had grown to be something
of a spoiled one, and was what the passengers thought rather too "peart"
in his ways, while some of the crew insisted that he needed "takin' down
a button hole lower," whatever that might mean.

"Bless yer soul, Mas'r," he said, in reply to the question. "Thar ain't
no conveyance to the clarin'. It's off in de woods a piece, right smart.
You sticks to de road a spell, till you comes to a grave--what used to
be--but it's done sunk in now till nuffin's thar but de stun an' some
blackb'ry bushes clamberin' over it. Then you turns inter de wust piece
of road in Floridy, and turns agin whar some yaller jasmine is growin',
an fore long you're dar."

The direction was not very lucid, and the stranger thought of asking the
clerk for something more minute, but the surprise in Ted's eyes when he
inquired the way to the clearing had put him on his guard against a
greater surprise in the clerk. He would find his way somehow, and he
went out into the yard and looked in the direction of the sandy road
which led into the woods and which Mandy Ann was taking, presumably on
her way home. A second time the thought came to him that she might
direct him, and he started rather rapidly after her, calling as he went:
"I say girl, I want you. Do you hear?"

Mandy Ann heard, gave one glance over her shoulder, saw who was
following her, and began at once to run, her bare feet and ankles
throwing up the sand, and her sunbonnet falling from her head down her
back, where it flapped from side to side as she ran. She remembered what
Ted had said of the stranger, who might be thinking of buying her; this