And then Ezra’s face beamed, he recognized old Sam’l, and he said, “Don’ you recommember me, Brer Sam? I’s Ezzy, Leetle Billy’s brudder, dat Mars Matthew sold ter Mars Bedford befo’ de wah.” Whereupon they embraced.
So by and by “Ezra” was bowing to and greeting Miss Mary.
Ezra was very hungry, and soon commenced to eat up the peaches, when a little darkey about three years old whom Sam’l said was his grandchild, looked into the basket and said something that probably meant to ask for peaches. Whereupon Ezra said:
“Do de chile talk, Brer Sam?”
Brer Sam’l said, “Well, I kyant tell ezactly; he mecks de sounds, but kyant fo’m de wuds yit.”
Then with timidity and a trembling voice he asked Sam’l for Mars Matthew and Miss Mary. Sam’l said, “Losin’ he good an’ faithful serbents dat wuz ’swaded ’way, seein’ de lawn kivvered all de time wid twigs an’ leabes, ev’ything goin’ ter wase, young Mars Matthew gittin’ kilt at Petersbu’g, ’stressed him so pow’ful dat he got so he cudn’ recommember anything; fuh instinct, he wud fogit de tex’ befo’ he lef’ de chuch; he almos’ fogot his A B C’s; den ergin, he wuz eighty years ole, an’ den he died. Mistis ’structed Pawson Phil Demby, John Poney, Damon Danridge, Rasmus Jemes an’ mehsef ter meck de toom. She wudn’ hab nobody else, an’ you kyant ’magine how fine it look.
“Ezzy, sence you bin ’way we has had uh gre’t preacher at Zion Chuch, an’ we hab all got erligion an’ tu’n Presbyters; de shirks wuz so bad we had ter gib up de Babtis’ erligion. Jes’ let me git annerr barsket ub peaches, Ezzy, an’ den I’ll go up an’ tell Ole Mistis you’r heah, an’ she will sho’ly see you.”
Whilst Sam’l was gone, Ezra thought of the straw stacks he used to climb and slide down, how his young Marster, killed at Petersburg, used to drive Rasmus, Saul, Little Billy and himself tandem, all harnessed up with sweet potato vines, and prancing with sheep-rib bits in their mouths like colts. And then he recalled the colts he broke, gazed upon the river where he used to wade the hunting horses along the beach to wash and tone up their legs; then he thought of his brother, Little Billy, his coon dog, Jasper, and of his boat, and wondered where they all were. He wiped his eyes, took a chew of tobacco, when his crowded thoughts were diverted by Sam’l’s return. So by and by Ezra was bowing to and greeting his “Ole Mistis.” Thinking to condole with her and leave the impression that he always thought his Marster of sound mind, he said, “Miss Mary, people use ter say dat Mars Matthew wuz rash-nal, but I nebber did think Mars Matthew wuz rash-nal.”
The old lady could scarcely repress a smile, and told Ezra the quarter where he was born and lived (on Heart’s Cove, a beautiful sheet of water near the homestead and an arm of Miles River) should be renovated and made comfortable as his home, and all that she required of him in his declining years was to keep her in oysters, fish and crabs, an easy task and eminently to the taste of Ezra.