And now she did speak. She motioned with her fan as though it had been a baton of authority, and in impatient tones she said: “Go on, nigger, git hung—git hung!” § 15 When the Dawn of Understanding Came The caller was undeniably large. When he walked he rippled and one had the feeling that should he sit down suddenly he’d splash. He wallowed into the office of a lawyer in the foothills of the Tennessee mountains and stated that he desired to bring suit against a neighbor for ten thousand dollars’ damages on account of libel. “How did he libel you?” asked the lawyer. “Well, suh,” stated the aggrieved party, “he up an’ called me a hippopotamus—that’s wut he done, consarn his picture!” “When did he call you this name?” “It’s a’ goin’ on two years ago.” “When did you first hear about it?” “That very next day.” “Indeed,” said the lawyer; “then why did you wait nearly two years to begin taking steps to bring suit against him?” “Well, suh,” stated the prospective plaintiff, “ontil that there Ringling Brothers’ circus showed yistiddy in Knoxville an’ I went down fur to see it I hadn’t never seen no hippopotamus.” § 16 As Translated into the English One night at dinner in honor of a distinguished visiting Englishman I was reminded of a yarn. I told it, and it went very well. It had to do with a prospector in Oklahoma who, on a Saturday night, bought a quart of moonshine whiskey and took it to his lonely cabin, anticipating a pleasant Sunday. But as he crossed the threshold he stumbled and fell, dropping his precious burden and smashing the bottle, so that its contents were wasted upon the floor. Depressed by his misfortune, the unfortunate man went to bed. As he lay there, a mangy, furtive, half-grown rat with one ear and part of a tail, emerged timorously from a hole in the baseboard, sat up, sniffed the laden air and then, darting swiftly to where the liquor made a puddle in a depression of the planking, ran out its tiny pink tongue, took one quick sip of the stuff and fled in sudden panic to its retreat. But it didn’t stay; shortly it again appeared, and now a student of rats would have discerned that a transition had taken place in the spirits of this particular rat. Suddenly it had grown cocky, debonair, almost reckless. It traveled deliberately back to the liquor and imbibed again. Seemingly satisfied it started for home but, changing its mind, it returned and partook a third time of the refreshment. Immediately then its fur stood on end, its eyes burned red, like pigeon-blood rubies, and straightening itself upon its hind legs it waved its forepaws in a gesture of defiance and shrilly cried out: “Now, bring on that dad-blamed cat!”