“’Tain’t no use ter tell you, suh, how times wuz right atter de war. You wuz right in um, an’ ef you don’t know, it’s bekaze you didn’t look ’roun’ an’ see um. I hear um say, suh, dat niggers wuz po’ when dey come free. Dey wuz, suh; dey wuz rank pizen po’; but dey never wuz in dis worl’ a nigger ez po’ ez some er our white folks wuz. You may shake yo’ haid, suh, but I’m givin’ you de straight gov’nment trufe. Niggers is use ter bein’ po’, an’ dey never wuz dat po’ dat dey can’t scuffle ’roun’ an’ make out somehow. Dey er been po’ so long dey er usen ter it. But white folks what been rich! I hope de Lord’ll call me home ’fo’ I see again what I done saw in dem days. I know in reason, suh, dat I seed mo’ er de trouble dan what you did, kaze you couldn’t go in at de back gates like me; an’ what trouble folks does have dey allers keep it somers betwix’ de bedroom an’ de back gate. “De Perdues wa’n’t no wuss off dan nobody else. Marse Tumlin had dish yer house an’ lot, an’ de plantation, an’ some lan’ way off yander. But all de hosses an’ mules an’ cattle been tuck off, an’ de niggers all gone. Ef he’d er stayed on de plantation, de niggers would ’a’ been dar yit, but stay he wouldn’t, an’ stay he didn’t, an’ so dar he wuz. “Do sump’n? What he gwine do? Fo’ de big turmoil he done some lawin’ an’ a heap er farmin’. Leas’ways my ol’ Mistiss done de farmin’, an’ Marse Tumlin, he done de lawin’. He had ’im a office here in town, an’ on set days he’d come in an’ look arter de cases what he had. But how anybody gwine ter do any lawin’ dat-a-way? Marse Tumlin ain’t keerin’ whedder he git one case er none. He ain’t bleedze ter do no lawin’. An’ den ’pon top er dat he went off whar dey battlin’, an’ dar he stayed, an’ when he come back, look like de kinder lawin’ what he use ter do done gone outer fashion. Ef he hadn’t er been holp out, suh, I dunner what’d ’a’ come un ’im. An’ ’twa’n’t only Marse Tumlin. Dey wuz a whole passel un um, too young ter die an’ too ol’ ter win money in dem kinder times. Ef you ain’t ol’ ’nuff ter ’member dem times, suh, you kin thank de Lord, kaze dey sho did look like tetotal ruination. “Now, you know yo’se’f, suh, dat you can’t eat a house an’ lot an’ live dar too; an’ you can’t eat lan’ des dry so less’n you got a mighty appetite fer dirt. Whyn’t he sell de lan’? You oughter be de las’ one ter ax me dat, suh. Who gwine buy it? Dem what ain’t got lan’ ain’t had no money, an’ dem what had money sholy lived a mighty long ways fum here. Day in an’ day out, suh, I wuz de wuss pester’d nigger you ever laid eyes on. I ain’t know what ter do.