"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' pens an' ink."
"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon as he was seated, "has this house a number?"
"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street."
"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the family. I think you said something about your husband?"
"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years."
"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?"
"Lawson, sah."
"He's colored, I suppose."
"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected."
"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column.