With the pickaninnies it was the same; bolder with those of her own color, there was always a wail when ’Liza was about, and at last old Maumer boxed her ears and sent her away from the nursery, so, as little as she was, there was nothing left for ’Liza but to go to the field. There she brewed mischief afresh, and the threat and whip of the overseer were as nothing to her, for toads and lizards would leap from her sack when the cotton came to be weighed, and she kept the Quarters always on the alert for some of her uglier pranks. It was even said that the lash of the overseer upon her back produced no welt, but that she laughed in his face while he sweated, for she was under a charm. As the time passed, a comelier negro girl than ’Liza would have been hard to find, and Bithie, proud, though mourning, lavished her little all upon her; but her child was nobody’s friend, saving perhaps Unc’ Caspar’s and his son’s. To them alone she told her joys and her sorrows, and Bithie looked aghast at the duckling she had hovered. “Hit wouldn’ erbeen so bad,” she confided to Maumer, whose charm had long ceased to even “lock horns” with Unc’ Caspar’s, “if she hadn’ er taken right ter dem what sot de cuss—an’—Unc’ Caspar des stan’ up an’ ’nies de truf, an’ say he nebber sot er cuss, an’ ax my ole man fur ’Liza fur his boy, ter probe hit,” said Bithie, with a sigh. “Do sumpen, Maumer, fur de lub er Gord—do sumpen, fur I des es lief dat ’Liza ’d mairey wid de debil!” “Hit were des dem words dat Bithie oughter et,” said Mammy, moving closer to the fire; “she oughter bit her tongue out ’fore she let dat loose, fur she sot de cuss er-gwine, an’ flung de bid ter de debil, an’ de debil tuk hit up, an’ now hit were hoodoo ’gin debil, an’ debil ’gin hoodoo, an’ ’Liza were de bone!” It was about the season, according to the thoughtful, that the devil was loose upon the earth for his yearly recreation, and, what with love affairs of white and black, and “misery charms” in the Quarters, he had enough on the one plantation to have kept him leisurely working for six months; but he was resolved to hasten matters, for there were other pleasures awaiting him. All this time Unc’ Caspar was asking for ’Liza for his boy; sometimes threatening, sometimes pleading; so when the devil came and Unc’ Caspar had “gotten out of his skin” more than once to oblige him, the hoodoo made mention of the affair, and told also of the curse which Bithie believed that he had set upon ’Liza. This made the devil look about, and when he had seen ’Liza and Unc’ Caspar pressed him for a comment, he cleared his throat and said, cautiously, “We’ll see about it.”