The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the AlmanacHone, William
History
The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac
Hone, William
Days; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
“Massa ’Squire,” said she, “I was gone up to massa Schoonmaker’s lot, on
Shaungum mountain, to pile brush; den Cuff, he vat stands dare, cum by
vid de teem, he top his horses and say, ‘How de do, Phillis?’ or, as she
gave it, probably in Dutch, ‘How gaud it mit you’ ‘Hail goot,’ said I;
den massa he look at me berry hard, and say, Phillis, pose you meet me
in the nite, ven de moon is up, near de barn, I got sumting to say--den
I say, berry bell, Cuff, I vill--he vent up de mountain, and I vent
home; ven I eat my supper and milk de cows, I say to myself, Phillis,
pose you go down to de barn, and hear vat Cuff has to say. Well, massa
’Squire, I go, dare was Cuff sure enough, he told heaps of tings all
about love; call’d me Wenus and Jewpeter, and other tings vat he got out
of de playhouse ven he vent down in the slope to New York, and he ax’d
me if I’d marry him before de Dominie, Osterhaut, he vat preached in
Milton, down ’pon Marlbro’. I say, Cuff, you make fun on me; he say no,
‘By mine zeal, I vil marry you, Phillis;’ den he gib me dis here as
earnest.”--Phillis here drew from her huge pocket an immense pair of
scissars, a jack knife, and a wooden pipe curiously carved, which she
offered as a testimony of the promise, and which was sworn to as the
property of Cuff, who subsequently had refused to fulfil the contract.
Cuff admitted that he had made her a kind of promise, but it was
conditional. “I told her, massa ’Squire, that she was a slave and a
nigger, and she must wait till the year 27, then all would be free,
cording to the new constitution; den she said, berry vell, I bill wait.”
Phillis utterly denied the period of probation; it was, she said, to
take place “ben he got de new corduroy breeches from Cripplely Coon, de
tailor; he owe three and sixpence, and massa Coon won’t let him hab ’em
vidout de money: den Cuff he run away to Varsing; I send Coon Crook, de
constable, and he find um at Shaudakin, and he bring him before you,
massa.”
The testimony here closed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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