Twelve miles below Kissimmee I passed under an arch that marked the Polk County line. I was in the famed Polk County.
How often had I heard “Polk County Blues.”
“You don’t know Polk County lak Ah do.
Anybody been dere, tell you de same thing too.”
The asphalt curved deeply and when it straightened out we saw a huge smoke-stack blowing smut against the sky. A big sign said, “Everglades Cypress Lumber Company, Loughman, Florida.”
We had meant to keep on to Bartow or Lakeland and we debated the subject between us until we reached the opening, then I won. We went in. The little Chevrolet was all against it. The thirty odd miles that we had come, it argued, was nothing but an appetizer. Lakeland was still thirty miles away and no telling what the road held. But it sauntered on down the bark-covered road and into the quarters just as if it had really wanted to come.
We halted beside two women walking to the commissary and asked where we could get a place to stay, despite the signs all over that this was private property and that no one could enter without the consent of the company.
One of the women was named “Babe” Hill and she sent me to her mother’s house to get a room. I learned later that Mrs. Allen ran the boarding-house under patronage of the company. So we put up at Mrs. Allen’s.
That night the place was full of men—come to look over the new addition to the quarters. Very little was said directly to me and when I tried to be friendly there was a noticeable disposition to fend me off. This worried me because I saw at once that this group of several hundred Negroes from all over the South was a rich field for folk-lore, but here was I figuratively starving to death in the midst of plenty.
Babe had a son who lived at the house with his grandmother and we soon made friends. Later the sullen Babe and I got on cordial terms. I found out afterwards that during the Christmas holidays of 1926 she had shot her husband to death, had fled to Tampa where she had bobbed her hair and eluded capture for several months but had been traced thru letters to her mother and had been arrested and lodged in Bartow jail. After a few months she had been allowed to come home and the case was forgotten. Negro women are punished in these parts for killing men, but only if they exceed the quota. I don’t remember what the quota is. Perhaps I did hear but I forgot. One woman had killed five when I left that turpentine still where she lived. The sheriff was thinking of calling on her and scolding her severely.
James Presley used to come every night and play his guitar. Mrs. Allen’s temporary brother-in-law could play a good second but he didn’t have a box so I used to lend him mine. They would play. The men would crowd in and buy soft drinks and woof at me, the stranger, but I knew I wasn’t getting on. The ole feather-bed tactics.
Then one day after Cliffert Ulmer, Babe’s son, and I had driven down to Lakeland together he felt close enough to tell me what was the trouble. They all thought I must be a revenue officer or a detective of some kind. They were accustomed to strange women dropping into the quarters, but not in shiny gray Chevrolets. They usually came plodding down the big road or counting railroad ties. The car made me look too prosperous. So they set me aside as different. And since most of them were fugitives from justice or had done plenty time, a detective was just the last thing they felt they needed on that “job.”
I took occasion that night to impress the job with the fact that I was also a fugitive from justice, “bootlegging.” They were hot behind me in Jacksonville and they wanted me in Miami. So I was hiding out. That sounded reasonable. Bootleggers always have cars. I was taken in.
The following Saturday was pay-day. They paid off twice a month and pay night is big doings. At least one dance at the section of the quarters known as the Pine Mill and two or three in the big Cypress Side. The company works with two kinds of lumber.
You can tell where the dances are to be held by the fires. Huge bonfires of faulty logs and slabs are lit outside the house in which the dances are held. The refreshments are parched1 peanuts, fried rabbit, fish, chicken and chitterlings.
The only music is guitar music and the only dance is the ole square dance. James Presley is especially invited to every party to play. His pay is plenty of coon dick, and he plays.
Joe Willard is in great demand to call figures. He rebels occasionally because he likes to dance too.
But all of the fun isn’t inside the house. A group can always be found outside about the fire, standing around and woofing and occasionally telling stories.
The biggest dance on this particular pay-night was over to the Pine Mill. James Presley and Slim assured me that they would be over there, so Cliffert Ulmer took me there. Being the reigning curiosity of the “job” lots of folks came to see what I’d do. So it was a great dance.
The guitars cried out “Polk County,” “Red River” and just instrumental hits with no name, that still are played by all good box pickers. The dancing was hilarious to put it mildly. Babe, Lucy, Big Sweet, East Coast Mary and many other of the well-known women were there. The men swung them lustily, but nobody asked me to dance. I was just crazy to get into the dance, too. I had heard my mother speak of it and praise square dancing to the skies, but it looked as if I was doomed to be a wallflower and that was a new role for me. Even Cliffert didn’t ask me to dance. It was so jolly, too. At the end of every set Joe Willard would trick the men. Instead of calling the next figure as expected he’d bawl out, “Grab yo’ partners and march up to de table and treat.” Some of the men did, but some would bolt for the door and stand about the fire and woof until the next set was called.
I went outside to join the woofers, since I seemed to have no standing among the dancers. Not exactly a hush fell about the fire, but a lull came. I stood there awkwardly, knowing that the too-ready laughter and aimless talk was a window-dressing for my benefit. The brother in black puts a laugh in every vacant place in his mind. His laugh has a hundred meanings. It may mean amusement, anger, grief, bewilderment, chagrin, curiosity, simple pleasure or any other of the known or undefined emotions. Clardia Thornton of Magazine Point, Alabama, was telling me about another woman taking her husband away from her. When the show-down came and he told Clardia in the presence of the other woman that he didn’t want her—could never use her again, she tole me “Den, Zora, Ah wuz so outdone, Ah just opened mah mouf and laffed.”
The folks around the fire laughed and boisterously shoved each other about, but I knew they were not tickled. But I soon had the answer. A pencil-shaped fellow with a big Adam’s apple gave me the key.
“Ma’am, whut might be yo’ entrimmins?” he asked with what was supposed to be a killing bow.
“My whut?”
“Yo entrimmins? Yo entitlum?”
The “entitlum” gave me the cue, “Oh, my name is Zora Hurston. And whut may be yours?”
More people came closer quickly.
“Mah name is Pitts and Ah’m sho glad to meet yuh. Ah asted Cliffert tuh knock me down tuh yuh but he wouldn’t make me ’quainted. So Ah’m makin’ mahseff ’quainted.”
“Ah’m glad you did, Mr. Pitts.”
“Sho nuff?” archly.
“Yeah. Ah wouldn’t be sayin’ it if Ah didn’t mean it.”
He looked me over shrewdly. “Ah see dat las’ crap you shot, Miss, and Ah fade yuh.”
I laughed heartily. The whole fire laughed at his quick comeback and more people came out to listen.
“Miss, you know uh heap uh dese hard heads wants to woof at you but dey skeered.”
“How come, Mr. Pitts? Do I look like a bear or panther?”
“Naw, but dey say youse rich and dey ain’t got de nerve to open dey mouf.”
I mentally cursed the $12.74 dress from Macy’s that I had on among all the $1.98 mail-order dresses. I looked about and noted the number of bungalow aprons and even the rolled down paper bags on the heads of several women. I did look different and resolved to fix all that no later than the next morning.
“Oh, Ah ain’t got doodley squat,”2 I countered. “Mah man brought me dis dress de las’ time he went to Jacksonville. We wuz sellin’ plenty stuff den and makin’ good money. Wisht Ah had dat money now.”
Then Pitts began woofing at me and the others stood around to see how I took it.
“Say, Miss, you know nearly all dese niggers is after you. Dat’s all dey talk about out in de swamp.”
“You don’t say. Tell ’em to make me know it.”
“Ah ain’t tellin’ nobody nothin’. Ah ain’t puttin’ out nothin’ to no ole hard head but ole folks eyes and Ah ain’t doin’ dat till they dead. Ah talks for Number One. Second stanza: Some of ’em talkin’ ’bout marryin’ you and dey wouldn’t know whut to do wid you if they had you. Now, dat’s a fack.”
“You reckon?”
“Ah know dey wouldn’t. Dey’d ’spect you tuh git out de bed and fix dem some breakfus’ and a bucket. Dat’s ’cause dey don’t know no better. Dey’s thin-brainded. Now me, Ah wouldn’t let you fix me no breakfus’. Ah git up and fix mah own and den, whut make it so cool, Ah’d fix you some and set it on de back of de cook-stove so you could git it when you wake up. Dese mens don’t even know how to talk to nobody lak you. If you wuz tuh ast dese niggers somethin’ dey’d answer you ‘yeah’ and ‘naw.’ Now, if you wuz some ole gator-back ’oman dey’d be tellin’ you jus’ right. But dat ain’t de way tuh talk tuh nobody lak you. Now you ast me somethin’ and see how Ah’ll answer yuh.”
“Mr. Pitts, are you havin’ a good time?”
(In a prim falsetto) “Yes, Ma’am. See, dat’s de way tuh talk tuh you.”
I laughed and the crowd laughed and Pitts laughed. Very successful woofing. Pitts treated me and we got on. Soon a boy came to me from Cliffert Ulmer asking me to dance. I found out that that was the social custom. The fellow that wants to broach a young woman doesn’t come himself to ask. He sends his friend. Somebody came to me for Joe Willard and soon I was swamped with bids to dance. They were afraid of me before. My laughing acceptance of Pitts’ woofing had put everybody at his ease.
James Presley and Slim spied noble at the orchestra. I had the chance to learn more about “John Henry” maybe. So I strolled over to James Presley and asked him if he knew how to play it.
“Ah’ll play it if you sing it,” he countered. So he played and I started to sing the verses I knew. They put me on the table and everybody urged me to spread my jenk, 3 so I did the best I could. Joe Willard knew two verses and sang them. Eugene Oliver knew one; Big Sweet knew one. And how James Presley can make his box cry out the accompaniment!
By the time that the song was over, before Joe Willard lifted me down from the table I knew that I was in the inner circle. I had first to convince the “job” that I was not an enemy in the person of the law; and, second, I had to prove that I was their kind. “John Henry” got me over my second hurdle.
After that my car was everybody’s car. James Presley, Slim and I teamed up and we had to do “John Henry” wherever we appeared. We soon had a reputation that way. We went to Mulberry, Pierce and Lakeland.
After that I got confidential and told them all what I wanted. At first they couldn’t conceive of anybody wanting to put down “lies.” But when I got the idea over we held a lying contest and posted the notices at the Post Office and the commissary. I gave four prizes and some tall lying was done. The men and women enjoyed themselves and the contest broke up in a square dance with Joe Willard calling figures.
The contest was a huge success in every way. I not only collected a great deal of material but it started individuals coming to me privately to tell me stories they had no chance to tell during the contest.
Cliffert Ulmer told me that I’d get a great deal more by going out with the swamp-gang. He said they lied a plenty while they worked. I spoke to the quarters boss and the swamp boss and both agreed that it was all right, so I strowed it all over the quarters that I was going out to the swamp with the boys next day. My own particular crowd, Cliffert, James, Joe Willard, Jim Allen and Eugene Oliver were to look out for me and see to it that I didn’t get snake-bit nor ’gator-swallowed. The watchman, who sleeps out in the swamps and gets up steam in the skitter every morning before the men get to the cypress swamp, had been killed by a panther two weeks before, but they assured me that nothing like that could happen to me; not with the help I had.
Having watched some members of that swamp crew handle axes, I didn’t doubt for a moment that they could do all that they said. Not only do they chop rhythmically, but they do a beautiful double twirl above their heads with the ascending axe before it begins that accurate and bird-like descent. They can hurl their axes great distances and behead moccasins or sink the blade into an alligator’s skull. In fact, they seem to be able to do everything with their instrument that a blade can do. It is a magnificent sight to watch the marvelous co-ordination between the handsome black torsos and the twirling axes.
So next morning we were to be off to the woods.
It wasn’t midnight dark and it wasn’t day yet. When I awoke the saw-mill camp was a dawn gray. You could see the big saw-mill but you couldn’t see the smoke from the chimney. You could see the congregation of shacks and the dim outlines of the scrub oaks among the houses, but you couldn’t see the grey quilts of Spanish Moss that hung from the trees.
Dick Willie was the only man abroad. It was his business to be the first one out. He was the shack-rouser. Men are not supposed to over-sleep and Dick Willie gets paid to see to it that they don’t. Listen to him singing as he goes down the line.
Wake up, bullies, and git on de rock. ’Tain’t quite daylight but it’s four o’clock.
Coming up the next line, he’s got another song.
Wake up, Jacob, day’s a breakin’. Git yo’ hoe-cake a bakin’ and yo’ shirt tail shakin’.
What does he say when he gets to the jook and the longhouse?4 I’m fixing to tell you right now what he says. He raps on the floor of the porch with a stick and says:
“Ah ha! What make de rooster crow every morning at sun-up?
“Dat’s to let de pimps and rounders know de workin’ man is on his way.”
About that time you see a light in every shack. Every kitchen is scorching up fat-back and hoe-cake. Nearly every skillet is full of corn-bread. But some like biscuit-bread better. Break your hoe-cake half in two. Half on the plate, half in the dinner-bucket. Throw in your black-eyed peas and fat meat left from supper and your bucket is fixed. Pour meat grease in your plate with plenty of cane syrup. Mix it and sop it with your bread. A big bowl of coffee, a drink of water from the tin dipper in the pail. Grab your dinner-bucket and hit the grit. Don’t keep the straw-boss5 waiting.
This morning when we got to the meeting place, the foreman wasn’t there. So the men squatted along the railroad track and waited.
Joe Willard was sitting with me on the end of a cross-tie when he saw Jim Presley coming in a run with his bucket and jumper-jacket.
“Hey, Jim, where the swamp boss? He ain’t got here yet.”
“He’s ill—sick in the bed Ah hope, but Ah bet he’ll git here yet.”
“Aw, he ain’t sick. Ah bet you a fat man he ain’t,” Joe said.
“How come?” somebody asked him and Joe answered:
“Man, he’s too ugly. If a spell of sickness ever tried to slip up on him, he’d skeer it into a three weeks’ spasm.”
Blue Baby6 stuck in his oar and said: “He ain’t so ugly. Ye all jus’ ain’t seen no real ugly man. Ah seen a man so ugly till he could get behind a jimpson weed and hatch monkies.”
Everybody laughed and moved closer together. Then Officer Richardson said: “Ah seen a man so ugly till they had to spread a sheet over his head at night so sleep could slip up on him.”
They laughed some more, then Cliffert Ulmer said:
“Ah’m goin’ to talk with my mouth wide open. Those men y’all been talkin’ ’bout wasn’t ugly at all. Those was pretty men. Ah knowed one so ugly till you could throw him in the Mississippi river and skim ugly for six months.”
“Give Cliff de little dog,” Jim Allen said. “He done tole the biggest lie.”
“He ain’t lyin’,” Joe Martin tole them. “Ah knowed dat same man. He didn’t die—he jus’ uglied away.”
They laughed a great big old kah kah laugh and got closer together.
“Looka here, folkses,” Jim Presley exclaimed. “Wese a half hour behind schedule and no swamp boss and no log train here yet. What yo’ all reckon is the matter sho’ ’nough?”
“Must be something terrible when white folks get slow about putting us to work.”
“Yeah,” says Good Black. “You know back in slavery Ole Massa was out in de field sort of lookin’ things over, when a shower of rain come up. The field hands was glad it rained so they could knock off for a while. So one slave named John says:
“More rain, more rest.”
“Ole Massa says, ‘What’s dat you say?’
“John says, ‘More rain, more grass.’”
“There goes de big whistle. We ought to be out in the woods almost.”
The big whistle at the saw-mill boomed and shrilled and pretty soon the log-train came racking along. No flats for logs behind the little engine. The foreman dropped off the tender as the train stopped.
“No loggin’ today, boys. Got to send the train to the Everglades to fetch up the track gang and their tools.”
“Lawd, Lawd, we got a day off,” Joe Willard said, trying to make it sound like he was all put out about it. “Let’s go back, boys. Sorry you won’t git to de swamp, Zora.”
“Aw, naw,” the Foreman said. “Y’all had better g’wan over to the mill and see if they need you over there.”
And he walked on off, chewing his tobacco and spitting his juice.
The men began to shoulder jumper-jackets and grab hold of buckets.
Allen asked: “Ain’t dat a mean man? No work in the swamp and still he won’t let us knock off.”
“He’s mean all right, but Ah done seen meaner men than him,” said Handy Pitts.
“Where?”
“Oh, up in Middle Georgy. They had a straw boss and he was so mean dat when the boiler burst and blowed some of the men up in the air, he docked ’em for de time they was off de job.”
Tush Hawg up and said: “Over on de East Coast Ah used to have a road boss and he was so mean and times was so hard till he laid off de hands of his watch.”
Wiley said: “He’s almost as bad as Joe Brown. Ah used to work in his mine and he was so mean till he wouldn’t give God an honest prayer without snatching back ‘Amen.’”
Ulmer says: “Joe Wiley, youse as big a liar as you is a man! Whoo-wee. Boy, you molds ’em. But lemme tell y’all a sho nuff tale ’bout Ole Massa.”
“Go ’head and tell it, Cliff,” shouted Eugene Oliver. “Ah love to hear tales about Ole Massa and John. John sho was one smart nigger.”
So Cliff Ulmer went on.
You know befo’ surrender Ole Massa had a nigger name John and John always prayed every night befo’ he went to bed and his prayer was for God to come git him and take him to Heaven right away. He didn’t even want to take time to die. He wanted de Lawd to come git him just like he was—boot, sock and all. He’d git down on his knees and say: “O Lawd, it’s once more and again yo’ humble servant is knee-bent and body-bowed—my heart beneath my knees and my knees in some lonesome valley, crying for mercy while mercy kin be found. O Lawd, Ah’m astin’ you in de humblest way I know how to be so pleased as to come in yo’ fiery chariot and take me to yo’ Heben and its immortal glory. Come Lawd, you know Ah have such a hard time. Old Massa works me so hard, and don’t gimme no time to rest. So come, Lawd, wid peace in one hand and pardon in de other and take me away from this sin-sorrowing world. Ah’m tired and Ah want to go home.”
So one night Ole Massa passed by John’s shack and heard him beggin’ de Lawd to come git him in his fiery chariot and take him away; so he made up his mind to find out if John meant dat thing. So he goes on up to de big house and got hisself a bed sheet and come on back. He throwed de sheet over his head and knocked on de door.
John quit prayin’ and ast: “Who dat?”
Ole Massa say: “It’s me, John, de Lawd, done come wid my fiery chariot to take you away from this sin-sick world.”
Right under de bed John had business. He told his wife: “Tell Him Ah ain’t here, Liza.”
At first Liza didn’t say nothin’ at all, but de Lawd kept right on callin’ John: “Come on, John, and go to Heben wid me where you won’t have to plough no mo’ furrows and hoe no mo’ corn. Come on, John.”
Liza says: “John ain’t here, Lawd, you hafta come back another time.”
Lawd says: “Well, then Liza, you’ll do.”
Liza whispers and says: “John, come out from underneath dat bed and g’wan wid de Lawd. You been beggin’ him to come git you. Now g’wan wid him.”
John back under de bed not saying a mumblin’ word. De Lawd out on de door step kept on callin’.
Liza says: “John, Ah thought you was so anxious to get to Heben. Come out and go on wid God.”
John says: “Don’t you hear him say ‘You’ll do’? Why don’t you go wid him?”
“Ah ain’t a goin’ nowhere. Youse de one been whoopin’ and hollerin’ for him to come git you and if you don’t come out from under dat bed Ah’m gointer tell God youse here.”
Ole Massa makin’ out he’s God, says: “Come on, Liza, you’ll do.”
Liza says: “O, Lawd, John is right here underneath de bed.”
“Come on John, and go to Heben wid me and its immortal glory.”
John crept out from under de bed and went to de door and cracked it and when he seen all dat white standin’ on de doorsteps he jumped back. He says: “O, Lawd, Ah can’t go to Heben wid you in yo’ fiery chariot in dese ole dirty britches; gimme time to put on my Sunday pants.”
“All right, John, put on yo’ Sunday pants.”
John fooled around just as long as he could, changing them pants, but when he went back to de door, de big white glory was still standin’ there. So he says agin: “O, Lawd, de Good Book says in Heben no filth is found and I got on his dirty sweaty shirt. Ah can’t go wid you in dis old nasty shirt. Gimme time to put on my Sunday shirt!”
“All right, John, go put on yo’ Sunday shirt.”
John took and fumbled around a long time changing his shirt, and den he went back to de door, but Ole Massa was still on de door step. John didn’t had nothin’ else to change so he opened de door a little piece and says:
“O, Lawd, Ah’m ready to go to Heben wid you in yo’ fiery chariot, but de radiance of yo’ countenance is so bright, Ah can’t come out by you. Stand back jus’ a li’l way please.”
Ole Massa stepped back a li’l bit.
John looked out agin and says: “O, Lawd, you know dat po’ humble me is less than de dust beneath yo’ shoe soles. And de radiance of yo’ countenance is so bright Ah can’t come out by you. Please, please, Lawd, in yo’ tender mercy, stand back a li’l bit further.”
Ole Massa stepped back a li’l bit mo’.
John looked out agin and he says: “O, Lawd, Heben is so high and wese so low; youse so great and Ah’m so weak and yo’ strength is too much for us poor sufferin’ sinners. So once mo’ and agin yo’ humber servant is knee-bent and body-bowed askin’ you one mo’ favor befo’ Ah step into yo’ fiery chariot to go to Heben wid you and wash in yo’ glory—be so pleased in yo’ tender mercy as to stand back jus’ a li’l bit further.”
Ole Massa stepped back a step or two mo’ and out dat door John come like a streak of lightning. All across de punkin patch, thru de cotton over de pasture—John wid Ole Massa right behind him. By de time dey hit de cornfield John was way ahead of Ole Massa.
Back in de shack one of de children was cryin’ and she ast Liza: “Mama, you reckon God’s gointer ketch papa and carry him to Heben wid him?”
“Shet yo’ mouf, talkin’ foolishness!” Liza clashed at de chile. “You know de Lawd can’t outrun yo’ pappy—specially when he’s barefooted at dat.”
Kah, Kah, Kah! Everybody laughing with their mouths wide open. If the foreman had come along right then he would have been good and mad because he could tell their minds were not on work.
Joe Willard says: “Wait a minute, fellows, wese walkin’ too fast. At dis rate we’ll be there befo’ we have time to talk some mo’ about Ole Massa and John. Tell another one, Cliffert.”
“Aw, naw,” Eugene Oliver hollered out.
Let me talk some chat. Dis is de real truth ’bout Ole Massa ’cause my grandma told it to my mama and she told it to me.
During slavery time, you know, Ole Massa had a nigger named John and he was a faithful nigger and Ole Massa lakted John a lot too.
One day Ole Massa sent for John and tole him, says: “John, somebody is stealin’ my corn out de field. Every mornin’ when I go out I see where they done carried off some mo’ of my roastin’ ears. I want you to set in de corn patch tonight and ketch whoever it is.”
So John said all right and he went and hid in de field.
Pretty soon he heard somethin’ breakin’ corn. So John sneaked up behind him wid a short stick in his hand and hollered: “Now, break another ear of Ole Massa’s corn and see what Ah’ll do to you.”
John thought it was a man all dis time, but it was a bear wid his arms full of roastin’ ears. He throwed down de corn and grabbed John. And him and dat bear!
John, after while got loose and got de bear by the tail wid de bear tryin’ to git to him all de time. So they run around in a circle all night long. John was so tired. But he couldn’t let go of de bear’s tail, do de bear would grab him in de back.
After a stretch they quit runnin’ and walked. John swingin’ on to de bear’s tail and de bear’s nose ’bout to touch him in de back.
Daybreak, Ole Massa come out to see ’bout John and he seen John and de bear walkin’ ’round in de ring. So he run up and says: “Lemme take holt of ’im, John, whilst you run git help!”
John says: “All right, Massa. Now you run in quick and grab ’im just so.”
Ole Massa run and grabbed holt of de bear’s tail and said: “Now, John you make haste to git somebody to help us.”
John staggered off and set down on de grass and went to fanning hisself wid his hat.
Ole Massa was havin’ plenty trouble wid dat bear and he looked over and seen John settin’ on de grass and he hollered:
“John, you better g’wan git help or else I’m gwinter turn dis bear aloose!”
John says: “Turn ’im loose, then. Dat’s whut Ah tried to do all night long but Ah couldn’t.”
Jim Allen laughed just as loud as anybody else and then he said: “We better hurry on to work befo’ de buckra7 get in behind us.”
“Don’t never worry about work,” says Jim Presley. “There’s more work in de world than there is anything else. God made de world and de white folks made work.”
“Yeah, dey made work but they didn’t make us do it,” Joe Willard put in. “We brought dat on ourselves.”
“Oh, yes, de white folks did put us to work too,” said Jim Allen.
Know how it happened? After God got thru makin’ de world and de varmints and de folks, he made up a great big bundle and let it down in de middle of de road. It laid dere for thousands of years, then Ole Missus said to Ole Massa: “Go pick up dat box, Ah want to see whut’s in it.” Ole Massa look at de box and it look so heavy dat he says to de nigger, “Go fetch me dat big ole box out dere in de road.” De nigger been stumblin’ over de box a long time so he tell his wife:
“Oman, go git dat box.” So de nigger ’oman she runned to git de box. She says:
“Ah always lak to open up a big box ’cause there’s nearly always something good in great big boxes.” So she run and grabbed a-hold of de box and opened it up and it was full of hard work.
Dat’s de reason de sister in black works harder than anybody else in de world. De white man tells de nigger to work and he takes and tells his wife.
“Aw, now, dat ain’t de reason niggers is working so hard,” Jim Presley objected.
Dis is de way dat was.
God let down two bundles ’bout five miles down de road. So de white man and de nigger raced to see who would git there first. Well, de nigger out-run de white man and grabbed de biggest bundle. He was so skeered de white man would git it away from him he fell on top of de bundle and hollered back: “Oh, Ah got here first and dis biggest bundle is mine.” De white man says: “All right, Ah’ll take yo’ leavings,” and picked up de li’l tee-ninchy bundle layin’ in de road. When de nigger opened up his bundle he found a pick and shovel and a hoe and a plow and chop-axe and then de white man opened up his bundle and found a writin’-pen and ink. So ever since then de nigger been out in de hot sun, usin’ his tools and de white man been sittin’ up figgerin’, ought’s a ought, figger’s a figger; all for de white man, none for de nigger.
“Oh lemme spread my mess. Dis is Will Richardson doin’ dis lyin’.”
You know Ole Massa took a nigger deer huntin’ and posted him in his place and told him, says: “Now you wait right here and keep yo’ gun reformed and ready. Ah’m goin’ ’round de hill and skeer up de deer and head him dis way. When he come past, you shoot.”
De nigger says: “Yessuh, Ah sho’ will, Massa.”
He set there and waited wid de gun all cocked and after a while de deer come tearin’ past him. He didn’t make a move to shoot de deer so he went on ’bout his business. After while de white man come on ’round de hill and ast de nigger: “Did you kill de deer?”
De nigger says: “Ah ain’t seen no deer pass here yet.”
Massa says: “Yes, you did. You couldn’t help but see him. He come right dis way.”
Nigger says: “Well Ah sho’ ain’t seen none. All Ah seen was a white man come along here wid a pack of chairs on his head and Ah tipped my hat to him and waited for de deer.”
“Some colored folks ain’t got no sense, and when Ah see ’em like dat,” Ah say, “My race but not my taste.”