Daddy Joe seemed to think that normal remarks were not to be expected from a visitant, possibly heavenly, at any rate having intimate knowledge and a message to deliver.
"Yes, sah. Da's a fac'. We must work in de gyarden, sholy."
"I have something for you to do." He stopped. Daddy Joe's sermon had seemed to imply an adverse opinion to negro freedom.
"You are wrong, Daddy Joe. It would be better for the slaves to be free."
"Fo' God!"
"You really think so yourself. This is what you think, that it is meant they shall be free, but it is right to tell them that their freedom will be a trial for them and many of them will fail. This is what you think."
"Da's sholy de efficaciousness."
"You will promise, then, in order to help this forward, to do what I tell you, and in secret, so that no one here shall know. It is a small thing, but a help to the cause of the Union armies, which is the cause of the nation and the negro—you will do this?"
"Yes, sah," in a trembling and awed whisper.