“Well, my Miss Ann had so many beau lovers she didn’t know which-away ter turn. Her bes’ beau lover, Marse Bert Mason, got kilt in the wah an’ Miss Ann got it in her haid she mus’ grieve jes’ so long fer him. But the truf wa’ that Miss Ann wouldn’t a had him if he had er come back. She wa’n’t ready ter step off but she wa’ ’lowin’ ter have her fling. Then the ol’ home kotched afire an’ then me’n Miss Ann didn’t have no sho’ ’nough home an’ we got ter visitin’ roun’ an’ Marse Bob, yo’ gran’pap, kep a pleadin’ an’ Miss Ann she kep’ a visitin’, fust one place then anudder, an’ Marse Bob he got kinder tired a followin’ aroun’ takin’ our dus’ 140 an’ befo’ you knowd it he done tramsfered his infections ter yo’ gran’mammy, an’ a nice lady she wa’, but can’t none er them hol’ a can’le ter my Miss Ann, then or now—’cept’n maybe that purty red-headed gal what goes a whizzin’ aroun’ the county an’ don’t drap her eyes fer nobody. ’Thout goin’ back a mite on my Miss Ann, I will say that that young white gal sho’ do run Miss Ann a clost second.”
“You mean Miss Judith Buck, Uncle Billy?” and Jeff’s face flushed. He had been thinking a great deal about Judith Buck and he was trying to school himself to stop thinking about her. Yet it pleased him that the old darkey should thus mention her.
“Yes sah, Miss Judith Buck.”
“Goodness, Uncle Billy, what is that strange rumbling and buzzing I hear?” interrupted Jeff. “Your carriage sounds as though you had installed a motor in the rear.”
“Lawsamussy, Mr. Jeff, that ain’t nothin’ but a bumbly bee nes’, what we done pick up somewhere on our roun’s. Them bees sho’ do give me trouble an’ it looks like I can’t lose ’em. ’Course I could smoke ’em out but somehow I hates ter make the po’ things homeless an’ I reckon they’s got a notion that the hollow place in the back er this here ca’ige b’longs ter them 141 an’ the knot hole they done bored is the front do’. When me’n Miss Ann has ter drive on I jes’ sticks a cawn cob in the hole an’ the bees trabels with us. Sometimes their buzzin’ air kinder comp’ny ter me. I ain’t complainin’ but times I’m lonesome an’ I wisht I mought er had a little cabin somewheres an’ mebbe some folks er my own.”
“Yes, Uncle Billy, I know you must get tired of not having a real home of your own. Didn’t you ever marry and haven’t you any kin?”
“No sah, I ain’t never married an’ as fer as I knows I ain’t got any kin this side er the grabe. You see, sah, it wa’ this a way. I been kinder lookin’ arfter Miss Ann sence she wa’ a gal an’ I always said ter myself, ‘Now when my mistis marries I’ll go a courtin’ but not befo’.’ I had kinder took up with Mandy, a moughty likely gal back there jes’ after the wa’ and me’n her had been a talkin’ moughty sof’ befo’ Miss Ann lef’ home that time when the ol’ place burnt up. It looks like I never could leave Miss Ann long enuf to go back an’ finish my confab with Mandy. An’ arter a while Mandy must er got tired of waitin’ fer me an’ she took up with a big buck nigger from Jeff’son County an’ they do say she had goin’ onter twenty chilluns an’ about fo’ husbands.” 142
“Uncle Billy, you have certainly been faithful to Cousin Ann. I don’t see what she would have done without you.”
“Gawd grant she won’t never have ter, Marse Jeff! It’ll be a sad day fer this ol’ nigger when Miss Ann goes but I’m a hopin’ an’ prayin’ she’ll go befo’ I’m called. If I should die they would’n be nobody ter fotch an’ carry fer Miss Ann. She gits erlong moughty fine here at Buck Hill, but some places I have ter kinder fend fer us-alls right smart. Miss Ann air that proudified she don’t never demand but ol’ Billy he knows an’ he does the demandin’ fer her. An’ I presses her frocks an’ sometimes I makes out to laundry fer her in some places whar we visits an’ the missus don’t see fit ter put Miss Ann’s siled clothes along with the fambly wash. An’ I fin’s wil’ strawberries fer her, an’ sometimes fiel’ mushrooms, an’ sometimes I goes out in the fall an’ knocks over a patridge an’ I picks an’ briles it an’ sarves it up fer a little extry treat fer my lady.”
“She certainly would be lost without you, Uncle Billy, but I’m going to make you a promise. If you should be called before my cousin I do solemnly swear that I’ll see to it that she has every comfort. The family owes you that much and I for one will do what I 143 can for Cousin Ann. On the other hand, if Cousin Ann should go first, I’ll do what I can to help you.”