With less fear of dust, and more love for fresh air than my fellow travelers, I established myself in the door. While we waited for the engine, a plantation negro, who seemed to belong to the lowest possible grade, approached us. He was not idiotic, but he seemed hopelessly and inconceivably stupid. No such existence as his would be possible on a large plantation. It is only where the attrition of social intercourse is almost wholly removed that a human being can possibly grow to manhood with so little advancement beyond the condition of the brutes around him. He was clad in the coarsest negro cloth, ragged, dirty, ill-fitting. Head and feet were bare. I asked him if he knew he was free. “Ya-a-a-s, sah.” “Well, are you ready to live with some good man, and go to work to earn your living?” “I reckon.” “How much do you think you ought to have per month?” “Dunno.” And the stupid stare was broken by a puzzled expression, as if this seemed a very hard and a very serious question. “Do you know how to raise cotton?” “Ya-a-a-s, sah, I kin make cotton well’s any man.” “How much can you make to the acre, on your place?” “Dunno.” “How much did you make altogether this year?” “’Bout bay an’ half, dis yeah; but we’s done hab ’bout eight bays over from las’ yeah.” “What do you think of Andie Johnson?” interjected an amused auditor of the conversation. “Who him?” “He’s President of the United States. Do you know what that is?” “Who him?” “Who?” “Why, Pres’den’?” Evidently he was not strong on politics; so we reverted to something he might be expected to be more familiar with. “Did you ever see a bigger town than this?” “N-n-no.” “This is the biggest town in the world, isn’t it?” “No; I’s heern dat C’lumbus is heap sight bigger.” “Columbus is the biggest town you ever heard of, is it?” He scratched his head for some time at the unwonted exercise it was getting, but finally concluded as how he’d heern tell dat Mobile was bigger still. “How much do you suppose you’d sell for?” This was asked, because it was said in some places that the ignorant negroes didn’t know they were free, and even had no knowledge of the meaning of the word. “I’s free. Ain’t wuf nuffin.” “How much were you worth before the war?” “Wen old massah died, him praisement said I wuf fifteen hunder dollah.” “When did your master die?” “Dunno.” “Was it a year ago?” “Spec it was a yeah.” “What did he die of?” “He’m drunk and fell off him hoss.” The public sentiment of the listening crowd seemed to decide that inquiries had been pressed far enough in that direction. I next fell back on something they were all interested in. “Would you work for five dollars a month?” He seemed a little puzzled, but thought he wouldn’t, “harly.” “Would you work for ten?” “Spec I would, sah.” “Would you stick at it, if a man hired you?” “Ya-a-a-s. Ef I once ’mence, and git money, I’s wuck on. Jis git me money an’ I wucks.”