"I'm glad, my friend, that you treat them like men: but I have supposed they were not well enough informed to have intelligent opinions on such subjects."
"Informed! wal, I reckon the' is; all uv mine kin read, an' sum on 'em kin write, too. D'ye see thet little nig thar?" pointing to a juvenile coal-black darky of about six years, who was standing before the "still" fire; "thet ar little devil kin read an' speak like a parson. He's got hold, sumhow, uv my little gal's book o' pieces, an' larned a dozen on 'em. I make him cum inter th' house, once in a while uv an evenin', an' speechify, an' 'twould do yer soul good ter har him, in his shirt tail, with a old sheet wound round him fur a toger (I've told him th' play-acters du it so down ter Charles'on), an' spoutin' out: 'My name am Norval; on de Gruntin' hills my fader feed him hogs!' The little coon never seed a sheep, an' my wife's told him a flock's a herd, an' he thinks 'hog' _sounds_ better'n 'flock,' so, contra'y ter th' book, he puts in 'hogs,' and hogs, you knows, hev ter grunt, so he gits 'em on th' 'Gruntin hills;" and here the kind-hearted native burst into a fit of uproarious laughter, in which, in spite of myself, I had to join.
When the merriment had somewhat subsided, the turpentine-maker called out to the little darky:
The young chattel ran to him with alacrity, and wedging in between his legs, placed his little black hands, in a free-and-easy way, on his master's knees, and, looking up trustfully in his face, said:
"No, He didn't: God doant make little nigs. He makes none but white folks;" said the master, laughing.
"Yas He'm do; Missus say He'm do; dat He make dis nig jess like He done little Totty."
"Wal, He did, Jim. I'm d----d ef _He_ didn't, fur nobody else cud make _ye_!" replied the man, patting the little woolly head with undisguised affection.
"Now, Jim, say th' creed fur 'de gemman.'"
The young darky then repeated the Apostle's Creed and the Ten Commandments.
"Wal, say suthin' more--sum on 'em pieces thet jingle."
The little fellow then repeated with entire correctness, and with appropriate gestures, and emphasis, though in the genuine darky dialect--which seems to be inborn with the pure-Southern black--Mrs. Hemans' poem: