"Now, tell me, Poopy," said Alice, "did you ever hear of friends who were not really friends, but enemies?"
The girl stared with a vacant countenance at the bright, intelligent face of the child, and shook her head slowly.
"Why don't you ask _me_?" inquired Corrie. "You might as well ask Toozle as that potato Kickup. Eh? Puppy, don't you confess that you are no better than a vegetable? Come, now, be honest."
"Humph! I thought so. But that's an odd question of yours, Alice. What do you mean by it?"
"I mean that my papa thinks there are friends in the settlement who are enemies."
"Does he, though? Now that's mysterious," said the boy, becoming suddenly grave. "That requires to be looked to. Come, Alice, tell me all the particulars. Don't omit anything--our lives may depend on it."
The deeply serious manner in which Corrie said this so impressed and solemnized the child, that she related, word for word, the brief conversation she had had with her father, and all that she had heard of the previous converse between him and Henry.
When she had concluded, Master Corrie threw a still more grave and profoundly philosophical expression into his chubby face, and asked, in a hollow tone of voice, "Your father didn't say anything against the Grampus, did he?"
"The Grampus,--the man, at least, whom _I_ call the Grampus, and who calls hisself Jo Bumpus."
"I did not hear such names mentioned; but Henry spoke of a wounded nigger."
"Aye, they're all a set of false rascals together," said Corrie.
"Niggers ob dis here settlement is good mans, ebery von," said Poopy, promptly.
"Hallo! Kickup, wot's wrong? I never heard you say so much at one time since I came to this place."
"Niggers is good peepils," reiterated the girl.
"So they are, Puppy, and you're the best of 'em; but I was speakin' of the fellers on the other side of the island,--d'ye see?"
"Well, but what makes you so anxious?" said Alice, looking earnestly into the boy's face.
Corrie laid his hand on her head and stroked her fair hair as he replied:
"This is a serious matter, Alice; I must go at once and see your father about it."
He rose with an air of importance, as if about to leave the kitchen.
"Oh! but please don't go till you have told me what it is; I'm so frightened," said, Alice; "do stay and tell me about it before you go to papa."