Last Monday mornin’ all of us got up well and harty as could be, and I sot in our room with Mary, and played with the baby till breckfust time, little thinkin’ what was gwine to happen so soon. The little feller was jumpin’ and crowin’ so I couldn’t hardly hold him in my arms, and spreadin’ his little mouth, and laughin’ jest like he know’d everything we sed to him.
Bimeby, Ant Prissy cum to tell us breckfust was reddy, and we all went into t’other room to eat, ’cept sister Kesiah, who sed she would stay and take care of little Henry Clay, till we was done. Mary’s so careful she won’t trust the baby with none of the niggers a single minit, and she’s always dredful oneasy when Kesiah’s got it, she’s so wild and so careless.
Well we sot down to breckfust, and Kesiah, she scampered up stairs to her room with the baby, jumpin’ it up, and kissin’ it, and talkin’ to it as hard as she could.
“Now, sis, do be careful of my precious little darlin’,” ses Mary, loud as she could to her, when she was gwine up stairs.
“Oh, eat your breckfust, child, and don’t be so tarrified ’bout the baby,” ses old Miss Stallins—“you don’t ’low yerself a minit’s peace when it’s out of yer sight.”
“That’s a fact,” ses sister Carline, “she won’t let nobody do anything for little Henry but herself. I know I wouldn’t be so crazy ’bout no child of mine.”
“Well, but you know sister Kiz is so careless—I’m always afraid she’ll let it swaller something, or git a fall some way,” ses Mary.
“Tut, tut,” ses the old woman, “ther ain’t no sense in bein’ all the time scared to deth ’bout nothing. People’s got enuff to do in this world to bear ther trouble when it comes, ’thout studdyin’ it up all the time. Take some of them good hot corn muffins,” ses she, “they’s mighty nice.”
We was all eatin’ along—the old woman was talkin’ ’bout her garden and the frost, how it had nipped her Inglish peas, and I was jest raisin my coffee cup to my mouth, when I heard Kesiah scream out:
“Oh, my Lord! the baby! the baby!” and kerslash! it cum rite down stairs on to the floor.