EGG-ZACTLY
“Come’yuh, gal, en’ lemme look ’puntop yo’ foot. W’en I call you, yo’ foot hebby ez i’on, en’ w’en I tu’n you loose, ’e light ez uh fedduh. Wuh ’smattuh? Yo’ two foot’ mus’ be tie togedduh, enty? Befo’ de Lawd, you stan’ same lukkuh yo’ maamy en’ yo’ gran’maamy alltwo. You is tarrypin w’en time come fuh wu’k, en’ bu’d w’en time come fuh play!”
Old Carolina Manigo sat on a three-legged stool at the door of his cabin, as he thus addressed his grand-daughter, Lucinda, a scrawny negress of twelve or thirteen years. With reluctant feet, the girl, a pitiful object, approached him. Her dress and appearance were in keeping with the wretched poverty of her grandfather and all his surroundings, and evidenced the utter incapacity of the average negro, thrown by “freedom” upon his own resources, to care decently for his family. The frowzy wool on her unkempt head had been plaited weeks before into little pigtails that bristled all over her crown like black caterpillars. Her face was gray with dirt, around her thick lips lingered the encrusted remnants of her sweet-potato dinner of the day before, while down her cheeks lay, like the rills of resinous gum that streak the bark of the pine tree “boxed” for turpentine, the tracks of recent tears. Through the rifts in the ragged cotton dress that constituted her sole attire, her scraggy limbs showed as she walked, or limped, rather, toward her grandfather. Around her left foot was wrapped a piece of burlap bagging, and, whenever she stepped upon it, her pinched face contracted with pain.
“’Smattuh, gal, snake bite you, enty? Dis house mus’be hab sin, ’cause dis mek de two time Gawd, een ’e mussy, sen’ mis’ry en’ water-moccasin een dis fambly. Las’ week dem ’stroy’d Hol’fas’ (w’ich him wuz de bes’ rokkoon dog ebbuh git ’pun a trail) en’ now, please de Mastuh, de snake gone en’ structid dis chillun gal, en’ ’e gwine to dead on my han’, en’ ’e know berry well ’e ma gone town, en’, ef ’eyizdead befo’ ’e ma git back frum town, him will lef’ me bidout a Gawd’ somebody fuh min’ bu’d out de cawnfiel’, en’ I nebbuh see, sence I bawn, shishuh hebby gang uh woodpeckuh’, crow’ en’ all kind’uh annimel lukkuh dis same Augus’ munt’. Gal! You ent gots no eye een yo’ head ’scusin’ fuh look fuh blackberry, enty? You walk duh paat’ en’ tu’n yo’ gaze ’puntop de sky, ’stead’uh quizzit de groun’ weh you duh walk! W’en you dead, who gwine keep jaybu’d’ out’n dis fiel’? I good min’ to lick you!”
“Gran’puh,” whimpered ’Cindy, “I nebbuh step ’puntop no snake, suh, ’tis briah w’at ’cratch me foot.”
“Briah!” laughed old Ca’lina, derisively.“Briah!Who’ebbuh yerry ’bout shishuh t’ing! Briah! I sway to Gawd, gal, you mos’ mek me laugh! Weh de debble you ebbuh know briah kin ’cratch nigguh’ foot? You mus’ be t’ink you is buckruh, enty? You binnuh walk een briah en’ t’ing ebbuh sence you bawn, ’tell de bottom uh yo’ foot haa’d same lukkuh alligettuh’ back, en’ you gots de impedin’ to come’yuh en’ tell yo’ gran’puh dat briah ’cratch yo’ foot! Step fas’, gal. Slow walkin’ mek quick lickin’, en’ fus t’ing you know briah will ’cratch you ’puntop yo’ back ’stead’uh ’pun yo’ lef’ han’ feet. Mek’ace, gal, en’ come’yuh. Ent you ’membuh dat, een de ’Postle Paul’ ’Pistle to de’Feeshun’, him resplain de wu’d dat ’long talk ketch run’way nigguh?’ Ent you know dat dey ent uh Chryce’ hom’ny een de house fuh eat? De las’ fr’en’ I got een dis wull’ wuz ole Hol’fas’, en’ snake gone en’ structid dat dog en’ kill’um, en’ ebbuh sence ’e dead, de waa’ment en’ t’ing come en’ ’stroy’d eb’ry Gawd’ fowl on de place, en’ las’ night wil’cat come en’ ketch de frizzle hen wat binnuh set onduhneet’ de cedar bush een de fench cawnuh, en’ de hen ’low de cat fuh ketch’um, en’ t’ree uh de aig’ is duck aig’ en’ two uh de odduh’res’ is tuckrey aig’, en’ you bettuh tek de aig’ to Mistuh Ram’ sto’ to de Cross Road’, en’ chaa’ge’um seb’npunce fuh de aig’, ’cause I don’t t’ink de aig’ kin specify berry well, ’cause de hen w’at bin seddown ’puntop de aig’ git ketch by de wil’cat en’ de aig’ binnuh seddown een de jew en’ t’ing, but ef de buckruh ’tarrygate you en’ quizzit you too ondeestunt ’bout de aig’, you kin tell’um dat de aig’ kin specify, ’cause de frizzle hen w’at de wil’cat ketch ent binnuh seddown ’puntop dem aig’ mo’n t’ree week, en’ you kin tell’um dat wehreas de hen aig’ oughtuh hatch’out een t’ree week’ de duck aig’ en’ de tuckrey aig’ ent jue fuh hatch’out ’tell de fo’ week done out, en’ tell’um dat wehreas de hen aig’ en’ de duck aig’ en’ de tuckrey aig’ all binnuh keep one’nudduh cump’ny, de hen aig’ is too mannusubble fuh hatch’out befo’ de odduh’res’ aig’, so de hen aig’ keep ’e cyarrictuh f’um spile, ’tell all ’e cump’ny done hatch’out.”