"So you do talk to Roxy some?"

"Levin, I'll tell you all about it, an' you won't tell nobody. Well, I
picks magnoleys an' wild roses an' sich purty things fur Roxy to give
her missis, an' Roxy gives me cake, an' chicken, an' coffee at the back
door, knowin' I ain't got much to buy 'em with. Lord bless her! she
don't half know I don't think as much of them cakes an' snacks an' warm
rich coffee, as I do of her purty eyes. She's a white angel with a
little coffee in her blood, but it's ole Goverment Javey an' more than
half cream!"

Here Levin laughed loudly, and said that Jack must have learned that out
of a book.

"Oh," said Jack, shutting one eye hard and joining in the grin, "sence I
ben in love I kin say lots o' smart things like that. I have seen purty
little Roxy grow up from a chile, an' as she begin to round up and git
tall, says I: 'Nigger or no nigger, she's angel!' The white gals they
all throwed off on me, caze I wasn't earnin' nothin', an' I sot my eyes
on Roxy Custis an' I says: 'What kin I do fur to make her shine to me?'
So I kept a-follerin' of her everywhere, an' I see her one day comin'
along the road a-pickin' of the wild blossoms an' with her han' full of
'em, an' I says: 'Roxy, what you doin' of with them flowers?' 'They're
fur my missis, Miss Vesty,' says she; 'she lives on wild flowers, an'
they're all I has to give her, an' I want her to love me as much as
Virgie.' You see Levin, the t'other gal, Virgie, waits on Miss Custis,
an' Roxy she was a little jealous. Then I says: 'Roxy, I kin git you
flowers for your missis. I know whair the magnoleys is bloomin' the
whitest an' a-scentin' the whole day long.' 'Do you?' says she, 'Oh,
Mr. Wonnell, I would like to have a bunch of magnoleys to put on Miss
Vesty's toilet every day.' 'I'll git 'em fur you, Roxy,' says I, 'becaze
I allus thought you was a little beauty.' Says she: 'I'd give most
anything to surprise Miss Vesty with flowers every day,--rale wild
ones!' 'Then,' says I, 'Roxy, I'll git' em fur you for a kiss!' An' she
most a-blushed blood-red an' ran away."

"That's what I told you, Jack, she's raised too well to be talkin' to
white fellers."

"Nobody's raised too well," rejoined Jack Wonnell, "to be deef to love
and kindness. Says I to myself: 'Jack, you skeert that gal. Now say
nothin' mo' about the kiss, an' go git her the flowers every day, an'
she'll think mo' of you!' So away I went to King's Creek an' pulled the
magnoleys, an' I