“Brudderin, da is nothin’ ez bad ez fogitfulness. Ef’n my memory wuz not
good (kase I lef’ my specks at hom’) I could not gib you any ub dese
beautiful names. Now, den, dese ten brudders wuz sent by deah Pa way
down in Egyp’ lan’ futto buy cawn fum deah eleventh brudder. An’ bless
yo’ soul, when dey got down da, dey didn’t eben no deah brudder—but he
no’d dem. Mebby de color ub his coat ’fused ’em. I tell you dem old
Petracks is a pow’ful fogitful race ub people. So wuz deah Ma’s an’
Pa’s. Laban, de Granpa ub de Petracks, and prob’ly de bigist farmer in
dem days, wuz uh fogitful man. We is told dat Jacob (wonder why dey jes’
call ’em Jacob), an’ Noahy, an’ Moses, an’ Peter, an’ Rasmus dey’s mos’
ub ’em kings an’ dukes an’ sich like. I mus’ ask Uncle Reubin boutin
dat. Well, Jacob merried Miss Rachel, so he did, but I specks Jacob got
a little _het up_ at de weddin’. An’ Laban, he mus’ hab had some ros’
apples wid apple-jack. Brudderin, apples is bin makin’ trubble eber
since Adam totch ’em—kase Laban he fogot which daughter Jacob wuz gwine
ter marry. ’Pears like Jacob fogot, too, kase he didn’t scover de
mustak’ till de nex’ mawnin’. An’ ’pears like Miss Leah an’ Miss Rachel
fogot. Now, wan’ dey uh fogitful lot ub people? De nex’ mawnin’ arfter
de weddin’—or as de Bible say, de feas’—when Jacob got up to milk de
cows an’ yoke de oxin, da was Miss Leah up, an’ shakin’ down de stove
an’ grindin’ de coffee. An’ Jacob say, ‘Wha Rachel?’ an’ Miss Leah say,
‘I dunno nuffin boutin Rachel.’ Da wuz uh mustak’ some wha, sho. So
Jacob merried ’em bof to be sartin an’ pleas’ Laban. No wonder dat de
Petracks wuz uh fogitful race wid four Ma’s an’ uh Pa all fogitful; an’,
mine you, Miss Rachel she wuz so fogitful seems to me her mine mus’ hab
been ’stressed, kase you recommember when her boys Jacob an’ Esau went
out an’ kilt uh deer, she fogot which kilt it—leas’wise it ’pears so.
Well, as fo’ dat, I specks de fus’ man, Adam, hissef was absen’-minded.
He sut’ny lubbed fruit. We all knows dat. An’ I specks he wuz hongry,
an’ mebby po’ Adam when he clum up de apple tree in de dark tho’t it wuz
uh peach tree—kase when a man is hongry he ain’ ’stressin’ hissef boutin
de fruit, so it’s good. An’ I specks he got ’fused ’bout de trees, kase
dat gyarden wuz full ub fruit trees, from apple trees clean down to
cucumbers and watermillions.
“King Dabid come outin uh fogitful fam’ly. De Bible tell us dat in dem
days Pharez fogot Hezron, an’ Hezron fogot Ram——”
Sister Becky (interrupting): “Pawson Demby, you mus’ mean Ham or Sham?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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