“Boss, I plum' disremembers, but it muster been de bigges' ship dey is. W'y suh, dey wuz 'most six-hund'ed folks on dat ship, an' I had to wash up after ever' las' one of 'em. W'ite folks suttinly teks a lot of dishes w'en dey eats—I'll tell de world dat.”
“Well, where did the ship land?—do you know that much?”
“Boss, hit wuz some place wid a outlandish name an' dat's all I kin tell you. I never wuz no hand fur 'memberin' reg'lar names let alone dese yere jabber kind of words lak dese yere French folks talks wid.”
“What happened when you came ashore?”
“W'y, suh, dey let me off de ship an' a w'ite man on de wharf-boat he tells me I'se landed right spang in France an' he axes me does I want a job of wuk an' I tells him 'Naw suh, not yit.' I tells him I'se aimin' to travel round an' see de country an' de war 'fore I settles down to anythin'. Den 'nother w'ite man dat's standin' dere he tells me dey's a lot of my colour in a place called Sant Nazare an' I 'cides I'll go dere an' 'sociate aw'ile wid dem niggers. So I changed my money an' I—”
“I thought you said you didn't have any money when you started?”
“I didn't, Boss, but de w'ite folks on de ship dey taken up a c'lection fur me, account of me washin' all dem dishes so nice an' clean. It come to twenty dollahs. So I changes it into dese yere francs. De man give me twenty francs fur my twenty dollahs—didn't charge me no interes' a-tall, but jes' traded even; an' den I sets out to find dis yere Sant Nazare place. Dat wuz two days ago an' I been mov-in' stiddy ever sense.”
“How did you know what train to take?”
“I didn't. I jes' went to de depot an' I dim' abo'd de fus' train I sees dat look lak she might be fixin' to go sommers. An' after 'w'ile one of dese Frenchies come 'round to me whar I wuz settin' sin' he jabber somethin' at me an' I tell him plain ez I kin, whar I wants to go an' is dis de right train? An' den he jabber some mo' an' I keep on tellin' him an' after 'w'ile he jes th'ow up both hands, lak dis, an' go on off an' leave me be in peace. W'ich dat very same thing happen to me ever' time I git on a train an' I done been on three or fo' 'fore I gits to dis place, dis mawnin'.
“My way wuz to stay by de train t'well she stop an' don't start no mo' an! den I'd git off an' walk round lookin' for de big wharf-boats where de w'ite man tole me dem niggers would be wukkin', but not no place I went did I see ary wharf-boats, so I jes' kept a-movin' t'well I got yere, lak I'm tellin' it to you, an' I says to myself den, 'Dis sutt'inly must be Sant Nazare—it's shore big enough to be, anyway.' But I walked 'bout ten miles an' I couldn't find no wharf-boats an' no niggers neither, scusin' some Frenchified niggers all dressed up lak Misty Shriners, an' dey couldn't talk our way of talkin'. I seen plenty of our soldiers but I wuz'n' aimin' to be pesterin 'round wid no soldiers 'till I'd done seen de war. So finally I sees a big place dat look lak it mout be 'nother depot, an' I went on in there an' wuz fixn' to tek de next train out, w'en dem two soldier-men of your'n wid de bands on dere arms dey come up to me an' dey run me in. An' yere I is.”