“If you behave properly she won't whip you. You'll grow up a 'poor, ignorant nigger' yourself, if you don't study.”
“Shall I get white, Mass' Frank, if I study?” asked Pomp, showing a double row of white teeth.
“You were white enough just now,” said Frank, smiling.
“Yah, yah!” returned Pomp, who appreciated the joke.
“Now, Pomp,” Frank continued seriously, “if you will learn your lesson in fifteen minutes I will give you a piece of gingerbread.”
“I'll do it, Mass' Frank,” said Pomp promptly.
Pomp was very fond of gingerbread, as Frank very well knew. In the time specified the lesson was got, and recited satisfactorily.
As Pomp's education will not again be referred to, it may be said that when Frank had discovered how to manage him, he learned quite rapidly. Chloe, who was herself unable to read, began to look upon Pomp with a new feeling of respect when she found that he could read stories in words of one syllable, and the “lickings” of which he complained became less frequent. But his love of fun still remained, and occasionally got him into trouble, as we shall hereafter have occasion to see.