"Yaas, 'm, I'm comin' to it. We jes' had one child, Joe and me. Her name was Cassie—Cass, we called her for short. Miss Margaret, Cass was a mighty pretty child. She looked jes' as pretty to me as yo' baby does to you, I reckon. Look lak the color don't make much difference to the mammy of a child. I was mons'us proud of her, and I useter dress her up in a little pink calico dress and ruffled white apron and set and look at her and think, 'Mammy'll work her black fingers to the bone, honey, befo' she'll let any harm come to you!'... But Mammy's fingers couldn't stand 'tween her and harm."
The voice stopped and she turned away, shaking her head, mournfully.
"Mammy Cely," said Margaret, softly, "if you belonged to the Davidsons, how did you happen to be with the De Jarnettes?"
"I'm jes' comin' to that. Look lak when I git to thinkin' of them old days I lose myself.... Well, when Cass was about nine years old, I reckon, word come one day to the cabins that Marse Tom had been killed,—throwed from his horse against a pile of rocks. We all thought a heap of Marse Tom. I don't believe there was a nigger on that place but felt they had lost their best frien' when he was gone,—but then we 'spected to go on jes' the same and work for old mistis. But one day jes' after the fun'al a man come out from Goochland Co't-'ouse and talked a long time to old mistis, and when he went away she look so white and sick it look lak she was gwineter die too.
"Miss Margaret, I reckon you know what it meant. Marse Tom wa'n't so rich after all and de likelies' of de niggers had to be sold to pay his debts.... Miss Margaret, I knowed I was one of de likelies'; and I tromped over to Marse Sam Dyer's on de farm j'inin' to see ef he would n' buy me. You see he owned Joe, my old man. I jes' got down on my knees and begged him fur the love of God not to let me be sold away from Joe. He says, 'Cely, I'd buy you in a minute ef I had the money, but I can't do it!'
"Then Joe, he says, 'Marse Sam, ef you can't buy Cely, will you let me go with her?' That was right hard on Marse Sam, 'cause Joe was born in the family, but he drawed a long breath and he says, 'Joe, I hate to let you go, but I can't stand between man and wife. Ef I can sell you to the man that buys Cely, I'll do it,' he says.
"But Miss Margaret, the worst thing 'bout slavery was that even a good man could n' always help the partin' of man and wife. Marse Tom never sold a nigger in his lifetime. I've seen more'n one nigger-trader ordered off the place! But then he never expected to die tell he was out of debt, and when he was dead old mistis could n' help it. They was boun' to be sold.... And then Marse Sam. He come down, and come down, and come down in his price for Joe, but the man that bought me didn't want him—at no price."
"Who was the man that bought you?"
"Major De Jarnette. You see, my young mistis, Miss Julia Davidson, was goin' to marry Major De Jarnette up here in Maryland, and she wrote to him wouldn't he buy me for her maid. Of course I'd rather go with her than be sold to anybody else. He wrote to her that he was willin' to buy me, but he didn't want the child—that a lady's maid ought not to have a child hangin' around her. Miss Julia she wrote to him that her Ma wouldn't never consent to our bein' separated, and so after some letters back and fo'th he agreed to buy us both and done so. I came up to Elmhurst with my Miss Julia when she was married—and Cass with me.
"Miss Margaret, I never felt easy 'bout it after I heared he didn't want Cass. I knew it would come! Well, we stayed there nearly a year befo' it did. Then one day not long befo' Marse Richard was born Cass come dancin' in the house where I was ironin' and she says, 'Mammy, am I pretty?'