“Well, suh, ’bout dat time, I ’gun ter nod, an’ de fus news I know’d Miss Vallie wuz whackin’ ’way on de peanner, an’ it look like ter me she wuz des tryin’ ’erse’f. By dat time, dey wuz gettin’ right chummy, an’ so I des curl up on de flo’, an’ dream dat de peanner chunes wuz comin’ out’n a bairl des like ’lasses. “When I waked up, Marse Paul Conant done gone, an’ Marse Tumlin ain’t come, an’ Miss Vallie wuz settin’ dar in de parlor lookin’ up at de ceilin’ like she got some mighty long thoughts. Her color wuz still up. I look at ’er an’ laugh, an’ she made a mouf at me, an’ I say ter myse’f, ‘Hey! sump’n de matter here, sho,’ but I say out loud, ‘Marse Paul Conant sho gwine ter ax me ef you ain’t had a dram.’ She laugh an’ say, ‘What answer you gwine ter make?’ I ’low, ‘I’ll bow an’ say, “No, suh; I’m de one dat drinks all de dram fer de fambly.”’ “Well, suh, dat chile sot in ter laughin’, an’ she laugh an’ laugh twel she went inter highsterics. She wuz keyed up too high, ez you mought say, an’ dat’s de way she come down ag’in. Bimeby, Marse Tumlin come, an’ Miss Vallie, she tol’ ’m ’bout how Marse Paul done been dar; an’ he sot dar, he did, an’ hummed an’ haw’d, an’ done so funny dat, bimeby, I ’low, ‘Well, folks, I’ll hatter tell you good-night,’ an’ wid dat I went out.” At this point Aunt Minervy leaned forward, clasped her hands over her knees, and shook her head. When she took up the thread of her narrative, if it can be called such, the tone of her voice was more subdued, almost confidential, in fact. “Nex’ mornin’ wuz my wash-day, suh, an’ ’bout ten o’clock, when I got ready, dey want no bluin’ in de house an’ mighty little soap. I hunted high an’ I hunted low, but no bluin’ kin I fin’. An’ dat make me mad, bekaze ef I hatter go down town atter de bluin’, my wash-day’ll be broke inter. But ’tain’t no good fer ter git mad, bekaze I wuz bleeze ter go atter de bluin’. So I tighten up my head-hankcher, an’ flung a cape on my shoulders an’ put out. “I ’speck you know how ’tis, suh. You can’t go down town but what you’ll see nigger wimmen stan’in’ out in de front yards lookin’ over de palin’s. Dey all know’d me an’ I know’d dem, an’ de las’ blessed one un um hatter hail me ez I go by, an’ I hatter stop an’ pass de time er day, kaze ef I’d ’a’ whipt on by, dey’d ’a’ said I wuz gwine back bofe on my church an’ on my color. I dunner how long dey kep’ me, but time I got ter Proctor’s sto’, I know’d I’d been on de way too long. [Illustration: “I hatter stop an’ pass de time er day.”]