An de judge he put on he black hat an say, ‘Hang Sam by de neck ontil he mus be quite ded, an de Lor hab mussy on pore Sam.’
Den Sam’s ole fader come a-runnin, an he fall down, an beg for Sam; but do’ he roll in de dus, an cry, de judge won’ let Sam go. Den dey all go ’way solemn like to de gallus. An de judge ax Sam, do he got anything to say for hisself. An Sam see de New Han’ stan a-laffin in de crowd. An he think how bad he dun treated de pore man.
So he say, ‘Brudren an sistren, min’ what I gwine tell you. Don’ ac highminded an biggity wid no one, case ef I hadn’ ac dat way to a man in dis here very crowd, I’d a been heavin saw-logs instid o’ gwine to be hung dis day.’ [[293]]
’Den all he frinds fall a-cryin an a-rollin, but de New Han’ jump up longside Sam, an say quick like to he, ‘Do you shore enuff sorry for you acshuns?’
Den Sam say, ‘Deed an deed I’s sorry, an I ax pardon an hope yo’ll forgive me when I’s gone.’
Den de New Han’ speak out big an loud to de crowd, an say, ‘How come yo gwine to hang dis heah man when de ole ’oman he kill is a-standin right dar?’
Sho’ enuff dar was she standin long o’ her ole man. So dey let Sam down, an dey had great jollification; but dey never see de New Han’ from dat day to dis nowhar.
JOHN BUNYAN.
Folk-tales are scarcely literature, but a question affecting the world’s literature arises out of these Gypsy folk-tales. Was the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress an English peasant or a Gypsy half-breed? The Rev. J. Brown, in John Bunyan: his Life, Times, and Work (1885), shows that the family of Bunyan—a name spelt in thirty-four different ways—was established in Bedfordshire as early at least as 1199, and that in 1327 a William Bownon was living at Elstow on the very spot where John Bunyan was born in 1628. There is a gap in the Bunyan annals between 1327 and 1542, when one finds a William Bonyon of Elstow, as in 1548 a Thomas Bonyon, aged forty-six or more. Next come a Thomas Bunyon, ‘Pettie Chapman,’ who died in 1641, and his son, also Thomas Bunyon (1603–76), who, says Mr. Brown, is ‘usually spoken of as a tinker, but describes himself as a “braseyer.” ’ This second Thomas took for his second wife in 1627 an Elstow woman, Margaret Bentley (1603–44), and John was the first child of that marriage. He, as every one knows, was an itinerant though house-dwelling tinker (Brown, pp. 64, 119, 158, etc); and his eldest son, John, ‘was brought up to the ancestral trade of a brazier, and carried on business in Bedford till his death in 1728’ (id. pp. 201–2). That is all of the essential to be gleaned about Bunyan’s pedigree; we know nothing as to his grandmother or great-grandmother.