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'speck ebbery ting be dull, wuss nor ditch-water. No more fun no more shuffle-foot. Old maussa no like de fiddle, and nebber hab party and jollication like udder people. Don't tink I can stay here, Mass Ra'ph, after you gone; 'spose, you no 'jection, I go 'long wid you? You leff me, I take to de swamp, sure as a gun." "No, Cæsar, you are not mine; you belong to your young mistress.
"Ki, maussa! me no sabbée wha' do a pickny," replies the intelligent Lindy, who wishes me to know that she knows nothing about the case. We shall see more of them before leaving the plantation.
The tobacco is forthcoming, together with a few gaudy head-handkerchiefs and little parcels of sugar, and "nyoung maussa" has it all his own way with the simple creatures. These negroes are as near the original wild African type as if a few years instead of more than a century of contact with civilization had passed over them.
"You black rascal, you know well enough I was not there that I was not within five miles of the spot, either to-day, yesterday, or for ten days back!" "Berry true, maussa; if you no dere, you no dere. Hob nebber say one ting when maussa say 'noder."
The negro put his finger to his forehead, and the lawyer began to fret at this indication of thought, and, as it promised to continue, exclaimed "Speak, you rascal, speak out; you know well enough without reflecting." The slave cautiously responded "If maussa want to be dere, maussa dere no 'casion for ax Hob."
Bless de Lawd! da' nyoung maussa! Ki! enty you tek wife yet? Go 'way! Bless de Lawd!" "I'm glad to see you looking so young, Kitty: your children must be grown up." "Tenk de Lawd, maussa," with a low curtsey, "I day yah yet! Dem pickny, da big man an' 'oman now. Enty you got one piece t'bacca fo' po' ole nigger?"
It's not true, young man. It's not true, my friends; don't believe a word of it. Now, Munro, how can you speak so? Hob Hob Hob I say where the devil are you? Hob say, you rascal, was I within five miles of the Catcheta pass to-day?" The negro, a black of the sootiest complexion, now advanced: "No, maussa." "Was I yesterday?"
But above the clamor of the hounds came the crack of the driver's whip, and his voice, mellowed by distance, was heard in angry tones: "Come back yah, you good-for-nuttin', wutless lee' rabbit-dog, you! I sway maussa ha' for shoot da' puppy 'fore he spile ebery dog in de pack!"
"Der's a time for trade, and a time for gib, and you must do de genteel t'ing, and nebber consider wha's de 'spense of it, or de profit. De nigger hab he task in de cornfiel', and he hab for do um; but 'spose maussa wants he nigger to do somet'ing dat aint in he task dat's to say in de nigger own time wha' den? He pays um han'some for it.
As they wail out the last word, "skies," the women all curtsey with a sharp jerk of the body and the men droop their heads upon their breasts a token that the strophe is ended; and the next two lines follow in the same manner. Then follows the prayer, in which due remembrance is made of "ole maussa" and "nyoung missis an' maussa," and all their friends and visitors.
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