her forefinger and
both her little sparkling eyes, "I'll 'form on ye for 'ticin' Mas'r
Henry's niggers run away."

"None o' yer sass here!" said Maum Zoe, with a flashing glance.

"You take my rabbit, you mus' _hab_ my sass," answered Flor, delicacy
not being ingrain with her. "W'at 'ud I cut for to de swamps, d' ye
s'pose?" she said, slapping the soles of her feet in her emphasis, and
pausing for breath. "Dar neber was a lash laid on dat back"----

"No fault o' dat back, dough," interposed Aunt Zoe.

"Dar neber was a lash on dat back. Dar a'n't a person on de place hab
sich treatem as dis yere Limb o' yourn. Miss Emma done gib me her red
ribbins on'y Sa'd'y for my har. An' Mas'r Henry, he jus' pass an' say to
me, 'Dono w'at Miss Emma 'd do widout ye, Lomy. Scairt, ye hussy!' So!"

"'Zackly. We's 'mos' w'ite, we be! How much dey do make ob us up to de
house! De leopard hab change him spots, an' we hab change our skin! W'at
's de use o' bein' free, w'en we's w'ite folks a'ready? Tell me dat!"
said Aunt Zoe, turning on her witheringly, rising from a deep curtsy and
smoothing down her apron. "Tell ye w'at, ye Debil's spinster!" added
she, with a sudden change of tone, as Flor began to mimic one of Miss
Agatha's opera-tunes and with her hands on her hips slowly balance up
and down the room, and came at last, bending far on one side, to leer up
in the face of her elder with such a smile as Cubas was wont to give her
Spanish lover in the dance. "So mighty free wid yer dancin', 'pears like
you'll come to dance at a rope's end! W'at's de use o' talkin' to you?
'Mortal sperit, it 's my b'lief dat ar mockin'-bird in de branches hab
as good a lookout!"

"Heap better," said Flor acquiescently, and beginning to hold a
whistling colloquy with the hidden voice.

"You won't bring him down wid yer tunes. He knows w'en he's well off;
he's free, he is,--swingin' onto de bough, an' 'gwine whar he like."

"Leet de chil' alone, Zoe," said a superannuated old woman sitting in
the corner by the fire always smouldering on Zoe's hearth, and leaning
her white head on her cane. "You be berrer showin' her her duty in her
place dan be makin' her discontented."

"She doan' make me disconnected, Maum Susie," said Flor. "'F he's free,
w'at's he stayin' here for? Dar 's law for dat. Doan' want none o' yer
free niggers hangin' roun' dis yere. Chirrup!"

"Dar's a right smart chance ob 'em, dough, jus' now," said Aunt Zoe,
chuckling at first, a