e him to take de two fifty, and leff him gwo. But he say, 'no,'
dat he wouldn't sell him fur dat, nohow.' And here the black looked
slyly at his master, and a merry twinkle came into his eyes. 'Well, den,
I tole master Robert dat I tought I could fix Cale ef he'd leff me
manage him jess as I like. He 'greed to dat, an' I gwoes down to
Newbern, an' makes Cale come home, an' den I say to him:

''Now, Cale, you stay yere, an' gwo to wuck. Ebery monfh you wuck fur
me, an' ebery oder monfh you wuck fur you'seff, an' when you wuck fur
you'seff I pay you so much fur ebery barr'l ob dip, an' so much fur
ebery barr'l ob scrape, an' so much fur ebery day when you wuck roun';
an' I makes you pay so much fur what you lib on. Well, Cale, he 'gree to
dat. He wuck de fust monfh fur heseff, an' he _did_ wuck--he done twice
so much as any hand on de plantation; but de next monfh, when he wuck
fur _me_, he don't do nuffin but lay 'bout, an' git drunk. I stood dat
till de monfh wus up--fur I neber did take ter whippin' de nigs, an'
master Robert know dat--an' den w'en Cale wus clean sober, I tied him up
to gib him a floggin'. Well, w'en he wus a stripped, an' I was jess
gwine to lay on de lashes, Cale say to me, says he:

''Look a yere, 'ou Joe, 'ou may whip massa's half ob dis nig jess so
long as 'ou likes, but ef 'ou put de lash onter _my_ half, I'll take de
law on 'ou. I will, shore.'

'Dat sot me a tinkin'; fur de fac wus, I'd nary right to flog _his_
half; but den it 'curred ter me dat none but darkies wus roun', an' so I
tought I had him, _shore_. Well, I puts on de lashes, an' he keeps a
tellin' me he'd hab de law on me, which make me sort o' 'zasparated,
till I put 'em on right smart, an' at lass he gib in. Well, w'en I'd a
got him a feelin' 'bout right, an' wus only jess puttin' de lass blows
on to finish up makin' a decent nigger ob him, master Robert he come up,
and when he seed de blood a runnin' down his back, he say Cale had been
whipped 'bout 'nough, and I must stop. Cale turned up missin' dat night,
an' got off to Newbern; an' shore 'nuff, de next evenin', long 'bout
dark, de sherrif he rode up to de house wid a writ fur master Robert fur
habin' made 'salt an' batt'ry on one collud man, called Caleb Preston,
an' he pulled out a suspeny dat make massa Robert witness agin heseff!
ha! ha! You see Cale wus smart; he know'd master Robert b'longed to de
Baptist meeting, an' wouldn't lie fur all de niggers in Jones county; so
h