' she
didn't see nothin'.

"'Once she said to me when de big words troubled her an' floor'd me, "I
can never be a lady dis way. Ef he'd take me whar he is, an' 'mongst his
people, I should larn thar ways, but what can I do here wid--" She
didn't say "wid Jake an' Mandy Ann an' ole granny, an' de rest of 'em,"
but she meant it. If it hadn't been for the lil chile she could of gone
to school. I tole her oncet I'd sen' her an' take care of de lil chile
an' ole Miss,--me an' Mandy Ann. The tears come in her eyes as she ast
whar I'd git de money, seein' we was layin' up what come from de Norf
for de chile. I'd done thought that out lyin' awake nights an' plannin'
how to make her a lady. I'se bawn free, you know, an' freedom was sweet
to me an' slavery sour, but for Miss Dory I'd do it, an' I said, "I'll
sell myself to Mas'r Hardy, or some gemman like him." Thar's plenty
wants me, an' would give a big price, an' she should have it all for her
schoolin'.

"'You orter have seen her face then. Every part of it movin' to oncet,
an' her eyes so bright I could not look at 'em for the quarness thar was
in 'em, an' I'll never forget her voice as she said, "That can't be;
but, Jakey, you are de noblest man, black or white, I ever seen, an' my
best frien', an' I loves you as if you was my brodder."

"'Dem's her very words, an' I would of sole myself for her if I could.
But de lam gin up after a while. All de hope an' life went out of her,
an' she died' an' you done 'tended her funeral,--you 'members it,--as
fust class as I could make it. I tole you sumptin' den, but not all
this. It wasn't a fittin' time, but seein' you brings it all back. Mandy
Ann an' me said we'd keep lil chile a while, bein' ole Miss was alive,
though she was no better than a broomstick dressed in her clothes. She
didn't know nothin', not even that Miss Dory was dead, an' kep' askin'
whose chile it was,--ef it was Mandy Ann's, an' why it was hyar. It
kinder troubled her, I think, it was so active an' noisy, an' sung so
much. Used to play at pra'r meetin' an' have de pow' powerful, as she
had seen de blacks have it when Mandy Ann took her to thar meetin's.
Seems ef she liked thar ways better than what I tried to teach her from
de Pra'r Book, an' they is rather more livelier for a chile. All de
neighbors was interested in her, an' ole Miss Thomas most of all. She's
de one what stood out de longest agin Miss Dory, 'case she didn't tell
squar what she'd promised not