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"It's jus' 'cause he's so young an' onthinkin'. An' aftah all, it ain't what he does. It's mo' like what the white folks say in they church up on the hill. 'I have lef' undone the things what I ought to 'uv done." Doubled up out of sight, behind the bushes that lined the roadside ditch, John Jay held his breath and listened.
Then she looked up, wondering at his silence and the grave intentness with which he was regarding her. "Oh, Rob, don't tell me, aftah all, that you think it was silly of me! I thought you'd like it! It was only the friendly thing to do, wasn't it?" He gave a final dig with his knife, then turned to look down into her wistful eyes.
"Sistah Sally, I reckernizes dat, an' I want to know ef you won't let me look out aftah we two? Will you ma'y me?" She picked nervously at her apron, and her eyes sought the floor modestly as she answered, "Why, Brothah Hayward, I ain't fittin' fu' no sich eddicated man ez you. S'posin' you'd git to be pu'sidin' elder, er bishop, er somp'n' er othah, whaih'd I be?"
"It's from the bride-to-be, mothah," she called, waving it gaily. "She'll be heah day aftah to-morrow, so we can begin to put the finishing touches to her room. The day she comes I'm going to take the girls ovah to Rollington to get some long sprays of bride's wreath. Mrs. Crisp has two big bushes of it, white as snow. It will look so cool and lovely, everything in the room all green and white."
He's jes' goin' to see dat I git sta'ted right aftah I git thaih." "Hit's Si Johnson?" he repeated. "'Tain't," said the woman. "Hit's freedom." Ben got up and went out of the cabin. "Men's so 'spicious," she said. "I ain' goin' Nawth 'cause Si's a-goin' I ain't." When Mr. Raymond found out how matters were really going he went to Ben where he was at work in the field.
"Mistah Breckenridge" ripped a few more dandelions off their stems and went on. "W'y, when dat woman lef me when mah Hannah went away ah use tuh go aftah night to de place whah she lived, jes' to heah huh laff again. Ah'd stan' out in d' dahk, an' ah'd see huh shadow on de cu'tin, an' den ah'd heah huh laff an' laff lak she always done, an' den ah'd come home!
There was a small grocery store farther up the hill, where a little of everything was kept in stock, and Lloyd dashed out bareheaded, glad of an excuse to cool her temper. By the time she had made the coffee in the new pot, Alec drove up to the door for her. "You'll come again to-morrow to make that lemon pie, won't you?" asked Mrs. Perkins, anxiously. "No, I can't come till the day aftah."
Then the Yankee dealers begun to fotch 'em in an' sell 'em at Lexin'ton an' Louisville an' Limestone. Rube an' Dink wuz the fust I owned bought 'em o' ole Jake Bledsoe in the spring o' '87. Now I own nigh on to twenty darkeys, big an' little. The place is fairly runnin' ovah with the lazy imps, an' it keeps me an' Cynthy Ann on the tight jump frum sun-up tell dark lookin' aftah 'em."
I shets my eyes so's to see to think bettah. An' aftah all, Mistah Ma'tin wasn't mo' 'n half an houah late dat mo'nin' nohow, 'case w'en I did git up I sholy flew. Ef you jes' 'membahs 'bout my steadyin' we ain't nevah gwine have no trouble long's I stays hyeah. "You say dat one night I stayed out tell one o'clock. W'y oh, yes. Dat uz Thu'sday night. W'y la!
In a hansom," returned the new-comer placidly. "So the dwivah ahsked me 'Whah to? y' know. I was feelin' nawsty enough, so I told him 'To pwugatowy! like that! He was ah a vewy litewal-minded puhson." There was a faint flicker of amusement in his gray eyes. "He ah bwought me to the Stock Exchange. Aftah I got out, y' know, I wemembahed that you ah did something heah.
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