“Is you gwine bet on him?” Prince Total squealed.
“I bets eve’y cent I’m got,” Shin grinned. “Dis hoss’s name is Rattlesnake, an’ he’s pure p’ison.”
Shin trotted his horse down the track, and the negroes watched the stiff hind leg of the animal and noticed that the horse never raised it far enough above the ground to prevent it making a long mark upon the turf. Shin galloped back in front of his friends, and the crippled horse awkwardly dragged his stiff leg, making a longer and deeper mark upon the track.
“I wonder ef dat nigger really means whut he say?” Pap remarked as he sat back in his seat.
“Whut race is you in, Pap?” Hitch Diamond asked.
“I starts Nigger Blackie in de las’ race,” Pap told him. “I bet Doodlebug yistiddy an’ lost him, but I speck he’s gwine in dat race, too. Of co’se Nigger Blackie kin beat Doodlebug—he done it yistiddy.”
“I thought Nigger Blackie b’longed to Skeeter Butts,” Hitch said.
“Naw, suh. I winned Nigger offen Skeeter yistiddy.”
“How many hosses in dat las’ race?” Prince Total asked.
“Gawd knows,” Pap sighed. “It’s de las’ race of de fair. It’s a free-fer-all scramble, an’ eve’y nigger in dis parish kin git in wid a race-hoss ef he wants to.”