proposed to find in Mexico that freedom which was
denied him here, and who, bein determined to leave the country, didn't
care who he sold his plantashen to, so ez he got greenbax, three hundred
acres, wich they hed divided up, and built cabins onto em, and wuz a
cultivatin it. There wuz a store-keeper at the Corners who come here
from Illinoy, and who hed been so greedy uv gain and so graspin ez to
buy their prodoose uv em, and sell em sich supplies ez they needed.
These accursed sons and daughters of Ham was a livin there in comfort.
The thing was a gittin unendoorable. They come to the Corners dressed in
clothes without patches, and white shirts, and hats on; and the females
in dresses, and hoops under em; in short, these apes hed assoomed so
much uv the style uv people that ef it hadn't bin for their black faces,
they wood have passed for folks.

Our people become indignant, and ez soon ez I returned, I was requested
to call a meetin to consider the matter, which I uv course did.

The horn wuz tootid, and the entire Corners wuz assembled, eggscepting
the Illinoy store-keeper, who didn't attend to us much. I stated briefly
and elokently (I hev improved in public speakin sense I heered His
Serene Highness, Androo the I., all the way from Washinton to
Looisville), and asked the brethren to ease their minds.

Squire Gavitt hed observed the progress uv them niggers with the most
profoundest alarm. He hed noticed em comin to the Corners, dressed
better nor his family dressed, and sellin the produx uv their land to
that wretch--

At this point the Illinoy store-keeper come in, and the Squire
proceeded.

--he shood say Mr. Pollock, and he hed made inquiries, and found that
one family hed sold three hundred and seventy-five dollars worth uv
truck, this season, uv which they hed laid out for clothes and books two
hundred dollars, leavin em one hundred and seventy-five dollars in cash,
which was more money than he hed made sense the accursed Linkin passed
the emancipashen proclamation. And what hed driv the iron into his soul
wuz the fact that wun of them niggers wuz _his_ nigger. "The money they
hev," pursood the Squire, "is MY MONEY; that man worth $1500 is my man;
his wife is my woman; her children my children--"

"That's a literal fact!" shouted Joe Bigler, a drunken, returned
Confederate sojer; "they hev yoor nose eggsactly, and they're the
meanest yaller brats in the settlement."

This unhappy remark endid in a sl