“I ain't talkin' to you!”
“You am. You called me names.”
“I never. I called you nothin', you ole white nigger.”
“You stand lie to me like that and call me names?”
“Who say lie? I ain't no liar. You shut up; you ain't my boss. I'll call you anythin' I please, sassin' me that way!”
“I didn't sassed you. You called me names.”
“I don't care what I called you—I know what you is.” Here Topsy gathered all her strength and shouted up to Fannie, “You're a heifer, you is.”
Now there is much I do not know about the world, and maybe heifer is a word like some one or two others you are never supposed to set down in so many letters. If so, it is new to me and I apologize. The way Topsy called it, and the way Fannie acted on hearing herself called it, would lead one to believe it is a word never appearing in print.
“You—call—me a heifer?” shrieked Fannie. “I'll tell ya landlady on ya, I will!”
“Don' yo' go mixin' up in my private affairs. You shut yo' mouth, yo' hear me? yo' heifer!”