ighty small price to ask fo' a likely young gal
like her, but I so conjured with the notion o' buyen' her I nevah
stopped to study into the reasons why o' things, special as I had part
o' the money right by me to pay; a pocket full o' money gets a man
into mo' trouble mostly than an empty one.

"Well, sah, I hadn't owned her no time, till I was mo' sot in my mind
than evah as how freedom was a hoodoo. If I hadn't been free I'd nevah
took the notion to have a free wife o' my own, an' I'd a been saved a
lot o' torment, _I_ tell yo'.

"She jest no good no how--that Cynthy. How they got work out o' her
ovah on the Masterson plantation I don't know, fo' _I_ couldn't. Think
she'd even cook vittels fo' her own self if she could help it? No,
sah! She too plum lazy. She jes' had a notion that bein' free meant
doen' nothen' 'tall fo' no body. It needed a whole meeten' house full
o' religion to get along with that gal, 'thout cussen' at her, an' as
I'd done trained in the race course an' not in a pulpit, seem like I
noways fit for the 'casion. But I devilled along with her for three
yeahs, and she had two boys by that time--didn't make no sort o'
difference. She got worse 'stead o' better o' her worthlessness, but
I tried to put up with it till she jest put the cap sheaf on the hull
business by getten' religion up thah in the gum tree settlement, an' I
drew the line at that, _I_ tell yo.' Thah she was, howlen' happy every
night in the week 'long-side o' Brother Peter Mosely. Brother Mosely's
wife didn't seem to favah their religion no more'n I did; so, seen' as
I couldn't follow roun' aftah her with a hickory switch, an' couldn't
keep her home or at work no othah way, I just got myself a divorce,
an' settled down alone on a patch o' lan' I bought o' Mahs Duke, an' I
kep' on looken' aftah his stables long as he kept any. He died just
afore young Mahs Tom married Miss Leo Masterson."

"But what of the divorce? Did it improve her religion or cure her
laziness?" asked Delaven, who found more of novelty in the black man's
affairs than the master's.

"Who--Cinthy? I just sold her right back to Mistah John Masterson fo'
twenty-five dollar less than I paid, an' the youngsters they went into
the bargain; fo' I tell yo', sah, them Nawthen niggahs is bad stock to
manage--if they's big or little; see what happened that Steve o' hern;
done run off, he has, an' him ole enough to know bettah. Oh, yes, sah,
I up an' I sold the whole batch; th