Thus it came about that Buster John and Sweetest Susan heard all the particulars of the burning of the big house, told in a style that was to them the most graphic and complete that could be imagined.
After eating the supper that had been brought in for her, Free Polly wiped her mouth with the back of her hands, placed her heels on the top round of the chair she sat in, and clasped her knees with her long arms. Then closing her eyes, she began:
“I dunner how come it, but when de sun shine it look like a long time ago when de house burn. When night come, it look like it done happen yistiddy. It so come ’bout dat I hatter come see ol’ Marster dat ve’y night. I start from de place whar I been workin’ time de sun go down, an’ when I come to turn in de big gate up yander, twuz gittin dark. I raise de latch er de big gate, I did, an’ den I say ter myse’f, ‘No, I won’t go de front way, kaze dey might be comp’ny in de front peazzer, an’ I’ll go roun’ de back way an’ come in by de nigger quarter.’ I had my min’ on dat ar man what dey like ter hang—dat ar Mr. Hudspy”—
“Hudspeth,” said Buster John.
“Kaze he gimme a sev’m-punce one time, an’ I wuz mighty sorry he had to go back home. I walk ’long, I did, an’ I ’low I mighty sorry dat ar Mr. Hudspy ain’t here now, kaze he might fergit hissif an’ gimme a n’er sev’m-punce.’ Des ’bout dat time I look up an’ look ’round, an’ right at me wuz a man. I could ’a’ put out my han’ an’ totch him. Ef he’d ’a’ said ‘Boo!’ at me, I’d ’a’ drapt right in my tracks. But I bowed, I did, an’ drapt him a curtsy, an’ ax’d him howdy.
“He say, ‘Ain’t dat Free Polly?’ I say, ‘Yasser.’ I know’d time he open his mouth dat ’t’wan’t nobody in de roun’ worl’ but dat ar George Gossett.
“He say, ‘I got a crow to pick wid you.’ I say, ‘How come dat, suh?’
“He say, ‘You been harborin’ runaway niggers.’ I say, ‘I don’t see how I kin do dat, suh, when it’s e’enabout all I kin do fer ter harbor myse’f, let ’lone runaway niggers.’
“He say, ‘I hear tell you es des han’ in glove wid dat ar nigger A’on what Pap bought fum de speculator.’ I say, ‘Ef A’on ever is been at my house, suh, it wuz unbeknownst to me.’
“He say, ‘Nummine. I’ll git you yit; an’ when I does, hit’ll be all night Isom dar wid you.’ I say, ‘Yasser,’ and den I bowed perlite ez I know how, an’ come on to de big house.