“Yes, but whah’m I gwine to git all dem things?”
“Why, I’ll go in with you and furnish the money, and help you build the coops. Then you can sell chickens and eggs, and we’ll go halves on the profits.”
“Hush, man!” cried ’Lias, in delight.
So the matter was settled, and, as Aunt Caroline expressed it, “Fu’ a week er sich a mattah, you nevah did see sich ta’in’ down an’ buildin’ up in all yo’ bo’n days.”
’Lias went at the work with zest, and Dokesbury noticed his skill with tools. He let fall the remark: “Say, ’Lias, there’s a school near here where they teach carpentering; why don’t you go and learn?”
“What I gwine to do with bein’ a cyahpenter?”
“Repair some of these houses around Mt. Hope, if nothing more,” Dokesbury responded, laughing; and there the matter rested.
The work prospered, and as the weeks went on, ’Lias’ enterprise became the town’s talk. One of Aunt Caroline’s patrons who had come with some orders about work regarded the changed condition of affairs, and said, “Why, Aunt Caroline, this doesn’t look like the same place. I’ll have to buy some eggs from you; you keep your yard and hen-house so nice, it’s an advertisement for the eggs.”
“Don’t talk to me nothin’ ’bout dat ya’d, Miss Lucy,” Aunt Caroline had retorted. “Dat ’long to ’Lias an’ de preachah. Hit dey doin’s. Dey done mos’ nigh drove me out wif dey cleanness. I ain’t nevah seed no sich ca’in’ on in my life befo’. Why, my ’Lias done got right brigity an’ talk about bein’ somep’n’.”