Two hours later, Jane approached the mistress of the house with an anxious face. “Please, ma’am, fuh gimme some ginjuh en’ t’ing fuh gi’ Esau ’fo’ ’e dead. Da’ nigguh sho’ hab uh hebby appetite fuh eat bittle. ’E ketch all dem fish, en’ ’e couldn’ sell’um to de buckruh ’cause dem binnuh leddown all day een de sunhot, en’ him fry’um en’ nyam t’ree string by ’eself, en’ ’e lef’ one string ’tell aw’ile ago, en’ uh tell’um fuh t’row’way dat one, en’ ’e staa’t’ fuh t’row’um ’way, but de fish cry out fuh Esau en’ Esau yeddy de cry, en’ ’e pinch de fish, en’ ’e keep on pinch’um, pinch ’um, ’tell ’e done nyam mos’ all de fish, en’ now de fish pinch him! Uh bin hab uh bottle uh hawss linniment fuh rub hawss, en’ uh t’row dat een’um, but de bottle didn’ bin mo’nuh half full, en’ uh ’f’aid de linniment ent ’nuf fuh do’um good, alldo’ ’e strangle Esau w’en him swalluhr’um, en’ mek’um fuh spit sukkuh crab spit. Now, ’e duh roll obuh en’ obuh ’pun de groun’ same lukkuh mule roll w’en ’e tu’n out duh Sunday, en’ oonuh kin yeddy’um groan sukkuh dem ’ooman groan to the sett’n’up, w’en dem husbun’ en’ t’ing dead. Ef you please, ma’am, kin gimme some linniment, uh sump’n’nurruh fuh g’em, uh dunkyuh ef ’tis kyarrysene, ’cause da’ nigguh gwine dead!”
“What do you want, Jane—ginger, peppermint or whiskey?”
“Wuh da’ las’ one you call ’e name, Missis?”
“Whiskey.”
“Missis, da’ t’ing too sca’ceful fuh t’row’um ’way ef da’ nigguh gwine dead. Ef you ent got de linniment, please, ma’am, gimme de ginjuh en’ de peppuhmint alltwo, so uh kin t’row’um een Esau.”
“Don’t give him too many things, Jane, one is enough.”
“Missis, enty da’ nigguh eat fo’ kinduh fish? Uh wan’ g’em meddisin fuh reach all de kinduh fish wuh ’e done eat. Uh yent want’um fuh dead on my han’, ’cause him ent hab no fambly, en’ ’e yent blonx to no suhciety fuh bury’um, en’ uh know berry well me yent fuh t’row’way money fuh buy shroud en’ cawpse en’ t’ing fuh no Esau, so please, ma’am, mek’ace en’ gimme de t’ing fuh t’row een’um en’ see ef uh kin sabe ’e life!”
A liberal dose of mixed ginger and peppermint was poured into a tin cup, the rim of which Jane forced between Esau’s teeth, and drenched him so successfully that in a few minutes he was flopping over the ground like a fish just pulled out of the water. His spasms were soon over, however, and he lay in a state of semi-coma. Jane was delighted. “Missis, me en’ you done sabe Esau’ life. Da’ nigguh blonx to me en’ you, Missis, en’ uh gwine mek’um wu’k.”
Summer passed into early autumn. The days shortened. September suns burned fiercely upon the ripening corn, and through the lengthening nights heavy dews fell on the purple petticoat-grass and the golden-rod. Between sunset and dusk, summer ducks flew over from their feeding grounds to their roosts in the pineland ponds, and all through the night sounded the faint “tweet, tweet” of the ricebirds passing on to their winter quarters.
So Jane, in the late summer of her days, looked kindly upon the man she had saved, even though she did not value the salvage very highly, and Esau gradually got in the habit of hanging about her kitchen and submitting to the air of proprietorship which she assumed toward him, chopping wood and doing other little chores for her, as a matter of course.