“An’ now she’s aimin’ to sell Sam, too, the onlies’ one of my Dilly’s pickaninnies what I done raise to comfort me. Please, Miss ’Thenia, buy us bofe. We’ll work for you till we drops. Honest we will, and we’ll—”
The old woman’s voice trailed off into uncontrollable sobs.
“There is certainly some mistake,” Mrs. May said, turning to Dorothea. “Would you mind, dear, fetching April for me.”
Dorothea ran off and soon returned with her cousin, to whom the situation was explained at once.
“There is some misunderstanding, of course,” Mrs. May ended, “but it is not a matter that can be delayed. It must be settled at once.”
“You’d better let me go, mother,” April suggested. “I can’t believe Aunt Cora could possibly do what Aunt Dilsey thinks, and it’s very wet for you.”
“No, I will leave Sam and Aunt Dilsey for you to look after,” Mrs. May replied significantly, and it was plain to April that she did not wish their story to be repeated throughout the quarters by the two. “I’ll take Dorothea with me and go over to Cora’s. Send one of the boys to tell Jastrow.”
April with Aunt Dilsey and Sam in tow disappeared. The carriage was ready almost as soon as Mrs. May and Dorothea, and once on their way the girl ventured to ask something about Aunt Dilsey and her grandson.
“She was Mother May’s cook when I was first married,” Mrs. May explained. “Your Aunt Cora, who was married some years later, always lived with her mother till the old lady died, so it was natural that she should inherit all the old house servants. Aunt Dilsey’s children are all dead too, and Sam is her only kin; so you see why she dreads to be separated from him. It is quite unheard of with us to separate families by selling them, and I am quite sure that there is some mistake. I am only going over now to make certain.”
Dorothea hoped that this might be the case. This question of slave-owning had puzzled wiser heads than hers, but so far she had seen the best side of the matter. The May servants were fortunate, in that their owners had their interests wholly at heart, indeed Dorothea frequently observed that the child-like negroes took advantage of this indulgence. On the other hand she had heard talk of hard masters who worked their slaves without consideration; those with whom she had been associated condemned this quite frankly, though as a body they felt that they must uphold the practice of slave-owning no matter what its abuses might be. Indeed they were quite sincere in their belief that their people were unfit to take care of themselves and dreaded the future for them in case the Federal Cause should triumph.