“Well,” continued the Major, “if it is yours, why don’t you wear it and save your head from the rain?”
“Oh!” replied the servant, with a smile of seeming satisfaction, “de head belongs to massa an’ de hat belongs to me. Let massa take care of his property, an’ I’ll take care of mine.”
Dr. Gaines, while taking a neighbor out to the pig sty, to show him some choice hogs that he intended for the next winter’s bacon, said to Dolly who was feeding the pigs: “How much lard do you think you can get out of that big hog, Dolly?”
The old negress scratched her wooly head, put on a thoughtful look, and replied, “I specks I can get a pail full, ef de pail aint too big.”
“I reckon you can,” responded the master.
The ladies are not without their recreation, the most common of which is snuff-dipping. A snuff-box or bottle is carried, and with it a very small stick or cane, which has been chewed at the end until it forms a small mop. The little dippers or sticks are sold in bundles for the use of the ladies, and can be bought simply cut in the requisite lengths or chewed ready for use. This the dipper moistens with saliva, and dips into the snuff-box, and then lifts the mop thus loaded inside the lips. In some parts they courteously hand round the snuff and dipper, or place a plentiful supply of snuff on the table, into which all the company may dip.
Amongst even the better classes of whites, the ladies would often assemble in considerable numbers, especially during revival meeting times, place a wash-dish in the middle of the room, all gather around it, commence snuff-dipping, and all using the wash-dish as a common spittoon.
Every well bred lady carries her own snuff-box and dipper. Generally during church service, where the clergyman is a little prosy, snuff-dipping is indispensible.