"En de 'omans mek answer en say: 'No, ma'am; we neber steal none.'"
"Cook," he said, "I got somepin' fo' tell yo'll 'stonish yo'. I study 'pon um till I confuse een my min'. I dunno ef I kin tell yo' straight, but anyhow I'll try. Yisterday my wife en all de 'omans on de place, gone fer chop cotton to Mr. O., en dem bin' a wuk en him wife run out en 'e say: 'So Miss Pennington hab fer giv' up plant cotton altogeder, una steal um so bad! En de 'omans mek answer en say: 'No, ma'am; we neber steal none.' Den de lady gon' een de house en bring out a newspaper en read out de newspaper, en please God, an' Chloe 'e read out o' dat newspaper eberyt'ing w'at happen on dis plantashun!
"De 'omans ben dat struck dem was same like a dumb pusson—dey was all de gwine-on 'bout de cotton-fiel'. De paper tell how dem gon' een de fiel, soon ne mornin' en pick de cotton, en w'en de moon shine how dem pick de cotton, en how dem mek pilla en bolsta, en at las' mattrus out de cotton, en ebery free-male been struck. 'Kase dem know 'twas all de truf. W'en my wife cum home en tell me I had to mek him tell me ober t'ree time befo' I git de onderstandin', en I ain't dun study yet how come dat kin all bin een dat paper."
Chloe told it with much more dramatic force than I have. He went on:—
"De whole plantashun stir up. Some say dem g'wine 'way, say dis is a witchcraf' place. Kyant onderstand how all dem sekrit kin git een de newspaper. De only t'ing all de name different. I kyant remember wha dem call Uncle Billy."
Chloe asked if there was anything about him.
"Yes, say how him seem like him couldn't ketch up wid de people, say him do all he kin but him cudn't seem to manige dem."
Two days after that, Chloe says, my good little Georgie came to her in great wrath. She had been at the reading and repeated the whole story to Chloe with small variations and a good deal more minutely. Her indignation was so great that Chloe tried to pacify her, but she would not be pacified.