“Jes’ Dick, so,” answered the boy.
“Oh! Well, that’s a very good name. It’s short and easy to say.”
“Too easy!” said the boy.
“ ‘Too easy?’ How do you mean?” queried the young man.
“Oh, nuffin’, only it’s allus ‘Dick, do dis!’ ‘Dick do dat.’ ‘Dick go dar,’ ’Dick come heah,’ an’ ‘Dick, Dick, Dick’ all de day long.”
“Then they work you pretty hard do they? You don’t look emaciated.”
“Maishy what, Mahstah?”
“Oh, never mind that. It’s a Chinese word that I was just saying to myself. Do they work you too hard? What do you do?”
“Oh, I don’t do nuffin’ much. Only when I lays down in de sun an’ jes’ begins to git quiet like, Miss Polly she calls me to pick some peas in de gyahden, er Miss Dorothy she says, ‘Dick, come heah an’ help me range dese flowers,’ or Mammy, she says, ‘Dick, you lazy bones, come heah an’ put some wood under my wash biler.’ ”
“But what is your regular work?”