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Everybody's subscribing for it, and I want to see if I can't take your name. "Now, just cast your eyes over that," he said, opening his book and pointing to an engraving. "That's lemme see yes, that's Columbus. Perhaps you've heard sumfin about him? The publisher was telling me to-day, before I started out, that he discovered No; was it Columbus that dis Oh yes! Columbus, he discovered America.
Mean an' sneakin' a nigger as ebber libbed, but I didn' know it den; an', anyway, he war John Brown's fader, an' powerful han'some; an' dat do count for sumfin'. When dey sole me away from him I jus' t'ought I should die. Dey let me take my baby wid me down to de partin'-plank dat's what dey called de gangway dey t'row out from de steamboat but dar de gals had to bid good-bye to all dar fren's.
"Miss Null," said the old man, slowly unbending his back, and getting himself upright, "dar's allus sumfin' else to do. Eber sence I was fus' bawn dar was sumfin else to do, an' I spec's it'll keep on dat ar way till de day I dies." "Of course there will be nothing else to do then but to die," observed Mrs Null; "but I hope that day is far off, Uncle Isham." "Dunno 'bout dat, Miss Null," said he.
"Dis heah fracas jest 'mind me of sumfin ole fool Zack done one time!" Uncle Zack screwed his face into a network of interrogating wrinkles and furtively watched her. He was not yet sure whether to be amused or offended. "Marse John," she looked up, "does you 'member dat time he wuz deacon of de new chu'ch, an' busted up de niggers' faith wid Sapry's weddin' cake?"
Then they swam streams in which the negro held the girl on her horse. At night Flower de Hundred was reached, and the children were with their aunt. Sam left them to return to Jamestown with the horses. As he went away, he took Robert aside and, with a strange look on his ebony face, said: "Spect sumfin bad am gwine ter happen, Masse Robert. She neber sent ye heah but for bad luck ter come.
"Uncle Dan'l, do you reckon it was the prayer that saved us?" said Clay. "Does I reckon? Don't I know it! Whah was yo' eyes? Warn't de Lord jes' a cumin' chow! chow! CHOW! an' a goin' on turrible an' do de Lord carry on dat way 'dout dey's sumfin don't suit him? An' warn't he a lookin' right at dis gang heah, an' warn't he jes' a reachin' for 'em?
They nudged each other and whispered their jokes about the beating. "Must er bin er flea bitin' me!" "I felt sumfin. Don't 'zactly know what it wuz. Mebbe a chigger!" "Must er been a flea. Hit bit me, too!" Sam tried to redeem himself for failing on his lessons in arithmetic. He had long ago learned to read and write and had asked for a course in history.
"Mudder! mudder!" cried the Old Man, but his voice warn't strong 'nd clear like it used to be. "Mudder, where be you, mudder?" Then, breshin' by me, Lizzie caught the Old Man up 'nd held him in her arms, like she had done a thousand times before. "What is it, darlin'? Here I be," says Lizzie. "Tum here," says the Old Man, "tum here; I wanter tell you sumfin'."
"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mollie aren't nice to me she can't have it." "Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show.
"Nothing to me, Mars'r," returned the negro; "but sumfin mighty curis happen over dar," and he pointed in the direction where his comrades were busy removing the family dead to a spot selected by Mr. Bernard years before as one more suitable than the present location.
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