[Illustration] Diddie, Dumps, and Tot OR PLANTATION CHILD-LIFE by Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK _By arrangement with Harper & Brothers _ COPYRIGHT, 1882, BY HARPER & BROTHERS COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MARY C. MOTLEY Printed in the United States of America Contents PREFACE CHAPTER I. DIDDIE, DUMPS, AND TOT CHAPTER II. CHRISTMAS ON THE OLD PLANTATION CHAPTER III. MAMMY’S STORY CHAPTER IV. OLD BILLY CHAPTER V. DIDDIE’S BOOK CHAPTER VI. UNCLE SNAKE-BIT BOB’S SUNDAY-SCHOOL CHAPTER VII. POOR ANN CHAPTER VIII. UNCLE BOB’S PROPOSITION CHAPTER IX. AUNT EDY’S STORY CHAPTER X. PLANTATION GAMES CHAPTER XI. DIDDIE IN TROUBLE CHAPTER XII. HOW THE WOODPECKER’S HEAD AND THE ROBIN’S BREAST CAME TO BE RED CHAPTER XIII. A PLANTATION MEETING, AND UNCLE DANIEL’S SERMON CHAPTER XIV. DIDDIE AND DUMPS GO VISITING CHAPTER XV. THE FOURTH OF JULY CHAPTER XVI. “’STRUCK’N UV DE CHIL’EN” CHAPTER XVII. WHAT BECAME OF THEM TO MY DEAR FATHER DR. RICHARD CLARKE OF SELMA, ALABAMA MY HERO AND MY BEAU IDEAL OF A GENTLEMAN I DEDICATE THIS BOOK WITH THE LOVE OF HIS DAUGHTER PREFACE In writing this little volume, I had for my primary object the idea of keeping alive many of the old stories, legends, traditions, games, hymns, and superstitions of the Southern slaves, which, with this generation of negroes, will pass away. There are now no more dear old “Mammies” and “Aunties” in our nurseries, no more good old “Uncles” in the workshops, to tell the children those old tales that have been told to our mothers and grandmothers for generations—the stories that kept our fathers and grandfathers quiet at night, and induced them to go early to bed that they might hear them the sooner. Nor does my little book pretend to be any defence of slavery. I know not whether it was right or wrong (there are many pros and cons on the subject); but it was the law of the land, made by statesmen from the North as well as the South, long before my day, or my father’s or grandfather’s day; and, born under that law a slave-holder, and the descendant of slave-holders, raised in the heart of the cotton section, surrounded by negroes from my earliest infancy, “I KNOW whereof I do speak”; and it is to tell of the pleasant and happy relations that existed between master and slave that I write this story of _Diddie, Dumps, and Tot._ The stories, plantation games, and Hymns are just as I heard them in my childhood. I have learned that Mr. Harris, in _Uncle Remus,_ has already given the “Tar Baby”; but I have not seen his book, and, as our versions are probably different, I shall let mine remain just as “Chris” told it to the “chil’en.”