childhood, and of the kind and generous master who strove in every way
to render his bondage (for which that master was in no way to blame) a
light and happy one.

Uncle Snake-bit Bob is living still. He has a little candy-store in a
country town. He does not meddle with politics. He says, "I don't cas'
my suffrins fur de Dimercracks, nur yit fur de 'Publicans. I can't go
'ginst my color by votin' de Dimercrack papers; an' ez fur dem
'Publicans! Well, ole Bob he done hyearn wat de _Book_ say 'boutn
publicans an' sinners, an' dat's ernuff fur him. He's er gittin' uperds
in years now; pretty soon he'll hatter shove off fur dat 'heb'nly sho';'
an' wen de Lord sen' atter him, he don't want dat angel ter cotch him in
no kinwunshuns 'long wid 'publicans an' sinners.'" And so Uncle Bob
attends to his store, and mends chairs and tubs, and deals extensively
in chickens and eggs; and perhaps he is doing just as well as if he
were in Congress.

Dilsey and Chris and Riar are all women now, and are all married and
have children of their own; and nothing delights them more than to tell
to their little ones what "us an' de wite chil'en usen ter do."

And the last I heard of Aunt Nancy, the "tender," she was going to
school, but not progressing very rapidly. She did learn her letters
once, but, having to stop school to make a living, she soon forgot them,
and she explained it by saying:

"Yer see, honey, dat man wat larnt me dem readin's, he wuz sich er
onstedfus' man, an' gittin' drunk, an' votin' an' sich, tell I
furgittin' wat he larnt me; but dey's er colored gemman fum de Norf
wat's tuck him up er pay-school ober hyear in de 'catermy, an' ef'n I
kin git him fur ter take out'n his pay in dat furmifuge wat I makes, I
'low ter go ter him er time er two, caze he's er membah ub de Zion
Chu'ch, an' er mighty stedfus' man, an' dat wat he larns me den I'll stay
larnt."

And Dumps? Well, the merry, light-hearted little girl is an "old maid"
now; and if Mammy could see her, she would think she was "steady" enough
at last.

Somebody, you know, must attend to the wants and comfort of the
gray-haired woman in the asylum; and Diddie had her boy to support and
educate, so Dumps teaches school and takes care of her mother, and is
doing what Uncle Snake-bit Bob told the Sunday-school children that God
had made them to do; for

Dumps is doing "DE BES' SHE KIN."

End of Project Gutenberg's Diddie, Dumps & Tot, by Louise-Clarke Pyrn