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As we came up to the door of the hut, Jaaf slowly left his little garden and joined the Indian, who remained immoveable and unmoved on the stone which served him for a seat. We could see but little change in either during the five years of our absence, each being a perfect picture, in his way, of extreme but not decrepit old age in the men of his race.
We know that Jacob" this was a free negro who served my uncle, a relic of the old domestic system of the colonies, whose name would have been Jaaf, or Yop, thirty years before "has gone to our banker's for letters and papers; and that naturally draws our thoughts to the other side of the Atlantic.
We are none of us as young as we were when we first became acquainted, Jaaf which is now near, if not quite, three-score years ago." "You nuttin' but gal, nudder," growled the negro. "Ole Sus be raal ole fellow; but Miss Dus and Masser Mordaunt, dey get married only tudder day. Why dat was a'ter de revylooshen!"
This young lady, that is seated opposite to me, is the sister of that young master, and she would be grieved to think you have forgotten her." Jaaf laboured under the difficulty so common to old age; he was forgetful of things of more recent date, while he remembered those which had occurred a century ago! The memory is a tablet that partakes of the peculiarity of all our opinions and habits.
"An attempt was made, a few years since, to turn the whole country into towns, and, among other places, the Neck; but I believe it will never be anything more than a capital farm." "So besser. Dat good land, I tell you! One acre down dere wort' more dan twenty acre up here." "My grandson would not be pleased to hear you say that, Jaaf." "Who your grandson, Miss Dus.
Yop, or Jaap, or Jaaf, rose tottering, made a low obeisance, and then answered in the semi-respectful, semi-familiar manner of an old, confidential family servant, as the last existed among our fathers: "T'ank 'ee, Miss Dus, wid all my heart," he answered. "Pretty well to-day; but ole Sus, he fail, and grow ol'er and ol'er desp'ate fast!"
There squats Susquesus on a stone, idle and disdaining work, with his rifle leaning against the apple-tree; while Jaaf or Yop, as I believe it is better to call him is pecking about in the garden, still a slave at his work, in fancy at least." "And which is the happiest, sir the industrious old man or the idler?" "Probably each finds most happiness in indulging his own early habits.
But Jaaf was constitutionally garrulous, though length of days had necessarily much diminished the propensity. At that moment a fit of thoughtful and melancholy silence came over my uncle, too, and all four of us continued brooding on our own reflections for two or three minutes after I had ceased to play.
I took out the hurdy-gurdy, and began to play a lively air one that was very popular among the American blacks, and which, I am sorry to say, is getting to be not less so among the whites. No visible effect was produced on Susquesus, unless a slight shade of contempt was visible on his dark features. With Jaaf, however, it was very different.
Remember you hab little baby tudder day; but baby can't hab baby." "Ah, Jaaf, my old friend, my babies have long since been men and women, and are drawing on to old age. One, and he was my first born, is gone before us to a better world, and his boy is now your young master.
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