ready fists like
rawhide mallets. Old Dave dutifully gives full credit to the law of
heredity.

"M' daddy was six feet six, an' weighed 248 pounds," he said proudly.
"Nevah done a hahd day's wuk in 'is life."

When pressed for an explanation of this seeming phenomenon, the old man
sniffed disdainfully.

"Does stock breeders wit a $10,000-stallion put 'im on de plow?... Dey
called my daddy de $10,000 niggah."

Uncle Dave sat, stroking his cane for a few minutes, then smiled
faintly. "My mammy was mighty nigh as big, an' nevah seen a sick day in
her life. Wit a staht lak dat, hit ain't no wonder I growed up all
backbone an' muscle."

While there have been many instances of atrocious cruelty to slaves,
Uncle Dave believes that other cases have been unduly magnified. He says
that he was never whipped by his master, but remembers numerous
chastisements at the hands of Miss Jessie, his young owner, daughter of
Pierre Pinckney.

"De young missus used to beat me a right smaht," he recalled with an
amused smile. "I b'longed to her, y'see. She was a couple o' years
younger'n me. I mind I used to be hangin' 'round de kitchen, watchin 'em
cook cakes an' otha good things. W'en dey be done, I'd beg for one, an'
dey take 'em off in de otha room, so's I couldn't steal any.

"Soon as de young missus be gone, I go an' kick ovah her playhouse an'
upset her toys. When she come back, she be hoppin' mad, an staht beatin'
me.

"'Jessie,' her ma'd say, 'you'll kill Buddy, beatin' him dat way.'

"'I don't care,' she say, 'I'll beat him to death, an' git me a bettah
one.'

"I'd roll on de flo' an' holler loud, an' preten' she hurt me pow'ful
bad. By'm by, when she git ovah her mad spell, she go off in da otha
room an' come back sid some o' dem good things fo' me." The old man's
eyes twinkled. "Dat be w'at I'se atter all de time," he explained.

The perils of a life at sea are not as great as fiction writers
sometimes indicate, according to this old sea dog. He says that in all
his voyages, he has been in only one serious wreck. That was on a reef
of coral keys off the Bahamas.

"Day say dey ain't no wind so bad but what it blows some good to
somebuddy," observed the old man. "Dat same wind what land us on de
rocks done blow me to de bes' woman in de worl'. Ah reckon."

He chewed slowly, as he gazed out over the dingy housetops toward the
mass of feathery clouds, which must have been floating over the rocky
shoals off Nassau.