My cripple was the fittest to go among the soldiers, because there was less danger of being pressed.

And so, in the even balance between the two categories, the little cripple remained a fixture in the stream of life that passed through that back room, in the fluxes and refluxes of buying and selling; not valueless, howeverrely upon a negro-trader for discovering values as substitutes, as panaceas.

Cripples are usually cross, irritable, and unpleasant companions.