Diddie, Dumps Tot | Page 7

was delivered,
"Min' yer manners, now!"
At which the little nigs would make a comical little "bob-down"
courtesy and say, "Thankee, marm."
When the presents were all delivered, Major Waldron told the negroes
that their mistress and himself were going to the quarters to take
presents to the old negroes and the sick, who could not walk to the
house, and that after that he would have service in the chapel, and that
he hoped as many as could would attend.
Then the crowd dispersed, and the children's mamma filled a basket
with "good things," and presents for old Aunt Sally, who was almost
blind; and poor Jane, who had been sick a long time; and Daddy Jake,
the oldest negro on the place, who never ventured out in bad weather
for fear of the "rheumatiz;" and then, accompanied by her husband and
children, she carried it to the quarters to wish the old negroes a happy
Christmas.
The quarters presented a scene of the greatest excitement. Men and
women were bustling about, in and out of the cabins, and the young
folks were busily engaged cleaning up the big barn and dressing it with
boughs of holly and cedar; for you see Aunt Sukey's Jim was going to
be married that very night, and the event had been talked of for weeks,
for he was a great favorite on the place.
He was a tall, handsome black fellow, with white teeth and bright eyes,

and he could play the fiddle and pick the banjo, and knock the bones
and cut the pigeon-wing, and, besides all that, he was the best hoe-hand,
and could pick more cotton than any other negro on the plantation. He
had amused himself by courting and flirting with all of the negro girls;
but at last he had been caught himself by pretty Candace, one of the
house-maids, and a merry dance she had led him.
She had kept poor Jim six long months on the rack. First she'd say she'd
marry him, and then she'd say she wouldn't (not that she ever really
meant that she wouldn't), for she just wanted to torment him; and she
succeeded so well that Jim became utterly wretched, and went to his
master to know "ef'n he couldn't make dat yaller gal 'have herse'f."
But his master assured him it was a matter that he had nothing on earth
to do with, and even told Jim that it was but fair that he, who had
enjoyed flirting so long, should now be flirted with.
However, one evening his mistress came upon the poor fellow sitting
on the creek bank looking very disconsolate, and overheard him talking
to himself.
"Yes, sar!" he was saying, as if arguing with somebody. "Yes, sar, by
rights dat nigger gal oughter be beat mos' ter deff, she clean bodder de
life out'n me, an' marster, he jes' oughter kill dat nigger. I dunno w'at
makes me kyar so much er bout'n her no way; dar's plenty er likelier
gals 'n her, an' I jes' b'lieve dat's er trick nigger; anyhow she's tricked
me, sho's yer born; an' ef'n I didn't b'long ter nobody, I'd jump right
inter dis creek an' drown myse'f. But I ain't got no right ter be killin' up
marster's niggers dat way; I'm wuff er thousan' dollars, an' marster ain't
got no thousan' dollars ter was'e in dis creek, long er dat lazy, shif'less,
good-fur-nuffin' yaller nigger."
The poor fellow's dejected countenance and evident distress enlisted
the sympathy of his mistress, and thinking that any negro who took
such good care of his master's property would make a good husband,
she sought an interview with Candace, and so pleaded with her in
behalf of poor Jim that the dusky coquette relented, and went down
herself to Aunt Sukey's cabin to tell her lover that she did love him all

along, and was "jis' er projeckin' wid 'im," and that she would surely
marry him Christmas-night.
Their master had had a new cabin built for them, and their mistress had
furnished it neatly for the young folks to begin housekeeping, and in
mamma's wardrobe was a white dress and a veil and wreath that were
to be the bride's Christmas gifts. They were to be married in the parlor
at the house, and dance afterwards in the barn, and the wedding supper
was to be set in the laundry.
So you see it was a busy day, with so much of cake-baking and icing
and trimming to be done; and then the girls had to see about their
dresses for the evening, and the young men had their shoes to black,
and their best clothes to brush, and their hair to unwrap; but,
notwithstanding all this, when Major Waldron and his family