r spend a lot on me,' say
daddy, 'but de fool never let me tell him jus' what I knows.'

"A day or two afterward he was in de witness box. De nigger lawyer say:
'Now, Mister Chisolm, tell your tale in your own way.' Daddy say: 'I saw
de defendant and de man, now dead, as they meet. They glare at each
other and begin to talk harsh and cuss each other. Then, one strike at
de other and they back 'way and begin to reach in deir hind pockets.'
Daddy stop, and de nigger lawyer fairly scream: 'Yes, yes, go on!' 'That
all I saw,' say my daddy, 'cause I run to cover. I made it to de next
corner in nothin' flat and pick up speed afterward. So I was two blocks
'way, when I hear de shootin'!' De nigger lawyer nearly faint. He say:
'Who bought you off?' Daddy say he would have told him at de start, if
he'd had de chance.

"At another time, we was down on de 700 block of Wayne Street, at a
nigger gatherin'. We often spend days down dere collectin' weekly
insurance dues, and we knowed most of de people. Dere happen to be a
young nigger dere, back from de West for a visit, and he was a great
bragger. He was tellin' 'bout corn in Texas. 'Dere,' he said, 'corn grow
twenty feet high, with stalks as big as the arm of John L. Sullivan,
when he whupped Kilrain, and half a dozen big ears on each stalk.' De
crowd was thunderstruck.

"My daddy cleared his throat and say: 'Dat am nothin' in de way of corn.
One day I was walkin' past a forty-acre patch of corn, on de Governor
Heyward plantation by de Combahee River and de corn was so high and
thick, I decide to ramble through it. 'Bout halfway over, I hears a
commotion. I walks on and peeps. Dere stands a four-ox wagon backed up
to de edge of de field, and two niggers was sawin' down a stalk. Finally
they drag it on de wagon and drive off. I seen one of them, in a day or
two, and asks 'bout it. He say: 'We shelled 366 bushels of corn from dat
one ear, and then we saw 800 feet of lumber from de cob.'

"Dat young man soon slip out from de crowd and has never been seen here
since. I thinks daddy was outdone with me, 'cause I was not quickwitted
and smart, lak him. He tell me once: 'You must learn two good trades,
and I think carpenterin' and brick-layin' safest.' I done that, and I
has never been sorry, 'cause I's made a good livin'. Governor Heyward
was always a good friend of daddy, and he was proud to see us makin'
good in de insurance business."

Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Sparta