BLACK CREEK, BELOW THE FALLS.
DE COMPOSATION UB DE SNIPE.
Little Billy was as black as a tar pot, short of stature, very bow-legged, cunning as a fox, and smart. When he drew his bow across a fiddle it made you feel like dancing, and when there was a dance among the overseers, Billy played, and called out, “Swing yo’ partners;” “pigeon wing,” “ladies ter de center,” etc. He set muskrat traps, fished on Sundays, and often coon and ’possum hunted Sunday nights. His bow legs enabled him to climb like a cat, and no tree was too big for him to negotiate if Truman treed up the same; and when Billy sang out, “Put him up, True!” and Truman “chawed de bark an’ wep, an’ ’stressed hissef,” as Billy would say, you might be sure there was a coon in the tree.
Billy was a slave, helped to milk the cows, tote fire wood, pick the chickens, turkeys and geese, and was “horngry” all the time. The negroes thought Billy monstrous wise, but thought Satan would get him. He was an innocent fabricator, and a harmless rogue.
One day whilst husking corn he said he had once killed twelve eagles at a shot. The darkies remonstrated with him, and said they had never seen more than two eagles at a time, whereupon Billy said he had killed ten. They continued to taunt him until he dropped to three, and then said, “I’ll die befo’ I drap another eagle!”
One Saturday in March Billy sauntered to the humble cabin of Jerry and Caesar Butler, brothers and free negroes, to steal a dozen raw. They lived at the head of a creek, fished, oystered, and hunted the marsh for muskrats for a livelihood. Saturday night the boat came, and he knew they would have several barrels of oysters for the steamer. The weather was not very cold and he assumed they were oystering, because the day before whilst they were out Billy had slipped over and stolen a cooking ’possum. Arriving at the cabin, lo! and behold, Caesar and Jerry were both on deck, the former lamenting and pondering about his ’possum, the latter skinning a lot of muskrats he had trapped the night before.
Caesar was fond of ’possum, and returning from oystering hungry and tired, stopped at the country store, bought a pint of applejack and a fat ’possum, went home, put his ’possum in the ashes, covered it with coals, took several swigs of applejack, and went soundly to sleep—’possum struck.
When Billy appeared the ’possum was nicely roasted, which Billy ate, piled the bones in Caesar’s lap, greased his hands and face, so when Caesar awoke he found his hands and cheeks greasy, and a pile of ’possum bones in his lap. He licked his hands, and said, “Dat’s ’possum;” felt his cheeks and said, “Dat’s ’possum sho’,” and when he saw the pile of bones in his lap, said: “Dat’s ’stonishin’ applejack, an’ de mos’ ornsatisfactionis’ ’possum dat ebber I et.”
Billy was very generous and when he had money would buy oysters, but without money would invite himself to take, and generally took them, for he was prodigal. It was nothing unusual for him to go to the country store and buy two eggs’ worth of molasses, of which he was very fond.
Billy had to have an excuse for his midday visit, so he pondered quite a while inventing one. The ’possum came to mind, and his heart sank into his boots. Then he thought of the snipe that had pitched on the marsh the night before, and soon had a yarn ready; so as the two old brothers sat gazing into the soothing fire, watching some bacon fry, he sauntered in, looking meek like, and said he had “come to tell dem what he heahd de Jack Snipe say on de mash lars nite, when he wuz mus’rattin’.” Jerry and Caesar were credulous and superstitious, but questioned Billy’s hearing the snipe talk. True they thought them “ve’y ’ceitful and quare birds, but nebber heahd dem talk.” Billy said, “Crows an’ parrots talk, but dey wan’ anyt’ing ter jack snipe. Ghoses an’ witches libbed in cow’s hohns! Watah rail tu’ned inter frogs an’ jack snipe tu’ned into jack-uh-ma-lanterns, which wuz ’ceitful larf in witches, but after all, hit all ain’ harf ez strange ez uh little blossom meckin’ uh watermillion.”