While Roxy had been helping on the quilt Jacob had been busy making the wide seat around the butternut tree, and when the little girl came out on the porch in the late afternoon he called to her to come and see it.
Jacob was Dulcie’s husband, a good-natured negro who had charge of the farm work, and who could do many useful things; and when Roxy ran toward the tree he pointed to the wide seat he had just finished and said proudly:
“Dar! Dat seat am as solid as dis earth. Dat am a fine seat, Missy.”
“Yes, indeed, Jacob! And I am going to bring my circus animals out and have them march around the tree,” said Roxy. “Wait a minute, Jacob, and I’ll fetch them.”
“I should admire ter see dat circus, an’ so’d all de niggers!” responded the man eagerly. “If yo’ ain’ no objection, Missy, I’d like ter hab Dulcie an’ May-Rose an’ de men wot helps me, step up here an’ see yo’ animals, an’ hear yo’ tell ’bout ’em?” and Jacob looked pleadingly toward Roxy.
“Yes, Jacob! Ask them all to come,” replied Roxy, running toward the house, while Jacob hurried off toward the cabins where the negroes lived to tell them of the entertainment in store for them.
Roxy carried the boxes containing the paper animals to the wide seat and had them all arranged in a procession when she heard the chatter of the negroes as they came toward the tree.
Jacob was a little in advance of the others; and although Dulcie announced that by rights she ought to have charge of “dis gatherin’,” Jacob paid no attention to her remarks, and told each one of the servants where they were to stand.
“We’s all ready, Missy,” he announced, smiling delightedly as his glance rested on the “circus.”
Roxy smiled in response, as she stood by the seat holding the same hazel-rod that she had used on the day of the party.