'Yas, massa. Hope you's well, massa?'
'Very well; and your mother—how is she?'
'Oh, she'm right smart, sar.'
'Yas, massa, I'se right smart; an' I'se bery glad ter see 'ou, massa,' said a voice at my elbow. It was Dinah, no longer clad in coarse osnaburg, but arrayed in a worsted gown, and a little grayer and a little bulkier than when I saw her eight years before.
'Why, Dinah, how well you look!' I exclaimed, giving her my hand. 'And you've come up to spend Christmas with Ally?'
'No, massa, I libs yere. I'se FREE now, massa!'
'Free! So you've made enough to buy yourself? I'm glad to hear it.'
'No, massa. Ally—de good chile—he done it, massa.'
'Ally did it! How could he? He's not more than twenty now!'
'No more'n he hain't, massa; but he'm two yar in massa Preston's swamp, wid a hired gang. Massa Preston put de chile ober 'em, an' gib him a haff ob all he make, an' he'm doin' a heap dar, massa.'