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Not infrequently he would fall asleep and then the impatient cook, who had orders to have dinner strictly upon the hour, would be compelled to seek the shore and roar at him. Old Jack would waken and upon rowing to shore would inquire angrily: "What you all mek such a debbil of a racket for hey? I wa'nt asleep, only noddin'."
"I wa'nt sho' it was you," he said, "and I wa'nt sho' you'd kno' me if it was. In my business I have to be mighty keerful," he added with a slight laugh. He came up to the saddle-skirt and held out his hand, half hesitatingly, as he spoke. The Bishop as every one knew him glanced into the face before him and saw something which touched him quickly.
"We had 'bout 60 slaves on our place, an' if a nigger man on one plantation fall in love wid a slave girl on 'nother place, dey jus' come to her plantation an' jump ober de broom an' den dey is mar'ied. De slabes never had preachers lak dey do at weddin's dese days. If de girl didn't love de boy an' he jumped ober de broom an' she didn't, den dey wa'nt mar'ied.
"Oh, it wa'nt?" she shrieked "to tattle-tale to the house-cat about yo' own spliced an' wedded wife? In her own home an' yard her that you've sworn to love an' cherish agin bed an' board ter call her a heifer?" She slipped her hand under her apron and produced a deadly looking blue plate of thick cheap ware. Her eyes blazed, her voice became husky with anger.
Mah fust mastah didn't make de li'l chillen wuk none. All I done was play. W'en I be ol' enough t' wuk, dey tuk us to Pelman, Jawjah. I never wukked in de fiel's none, not den. Dey allus le me nuss de chillens. Den I got married. Hit wa'nt no church weddin'; we got married in gran'mammy's kitchen, den we go to our own log house.
"At da wake we clapped our han's an' kep' time wid our feet Walking Egypt, dey calls hit an' we chant an' hum all night 'till de nigger was funeralized. "Fire was 'bout de hardes' thing fer us to keep. Dere wa'nt no matches in dem days, an' we toted fire frum one plantation to 'nother when hit burned out. We put live coals in pans or buckets an' toted it home.
Born and bred in the mountains, he knew that that would be an unpardonable breach of etiquette. But the wounded man was uneasy, and when he was eased of his pain, he began to talk: "I wa'nt doin' nothing!" he explained, "I were jes' drappin' down, up above Buffalo Island, an' b'low Commerce, an' a lady shot me bang! Ho law! She jes' shot me thataway. No 'count for hit at all."
The first thing Dick carried in was the whiskey keg. 'I think more of that, he remarked, as he sot it down tender like, as if it was a sick baby, 'than everything else in the outfit. I made no reply, but I was busy thinking, and when he wa'nt looking I done some chuckling and laughing that would have made him open his eyes had he knowed of it.
"A lady you knowed?" Rasba asked. "No suh! But she's onto the riveh, into a shanty-boat, purty, too, an' jes' drappin' down, like she wa'nt goin' no wheres, an' like she mout of be'n jes' moseyin'. I jes 'lowed I'd drap in, an' say howdy like, an' she drawed down an' shot bang!" "Was she frightened?" "Hit were a lonesome reach, along of Powerses Island," the man admitted, whining and reluctant.
"That wur one sukumstance in his favour. Wa'nt it?" "It wur! it wur!" "Wal, hyur's another. The Injun, 'ee see, shot his mark off o' the head. Now, this child's a-gwine to knock his'n off o' the tail. Kud yur Injun do that? Eh, boyees?" "No, no!" "Do that beat him, or do it not, then?" "It beats him!" "It does!" "Far better!" "Hooray!" vociferated several voices, amidst yells of laughter.
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