ez I kin see?"

Now ordinarily Jeff would have held firmly to the doctrine that white
folks should tend to their business and let black folks tend to theirs.
For all his loyalty to his master, a certain race consciousness in him
would have bade him keep hands off and tongue locked. But here a strong
personal prejudice operated to steer Jeff away from what otherwise would
have been his customary course.

"Jedge," he said, drawing a pace or two nearer his employer, "did you
ever hear tell of a pale-yaller party w'ich calls hisse'f Doct' J.
Talbott Duvall dat come yere a few weeks ago?"

"Ah, hah!" said the judge as though satisfied of the correctness of a
prior conclusion. "I thought possibly my mind might be on the right
track. Yes, I've heard of him and I've seen him. Whut of him?"

"Jedge, I trusts you won't tell nobody else whut I'm tellin' you, but
dat's sho' de one dat's at the bottom of the whole mess. He's the one
dat's plantin' the pizen. Me, I ain't had no truck wid him myse'f, but
dat ain't sayin' I don't know whut he's doin', case I do. He calls
hisse'f a organizer."

"Ah, hah! And whut is he organizin'?"

"Trouble, jedge. Dat's whut--trouble fur a lot of folks. Jedge, fo' we
goes any further lemme ast you a coupler questions, please, suh. Is it
true dat over dere in some of dem Youropean countries black folks is
jes' the same ez white folks, ef not more so?"

Choosing his words, the old man elucidated his understanding of the
social order as it prevailed in certain geographical divisions and
subdivisions of the continent of Europe.

"Yas, suh, thanky, suh," said Jeff when the judge had finished. "I
reckin mebbe one main trouble over dere is, jedge, dat dem folks ain't
been raised de way you an' me is."

"Jeff," said the judge, "I'm inclined to think probably you're right."

"Yas, suh. Now den, jedge, here's one mo' thing. Is it true dat in all
dem furrin countries--Russia an' Germany an' Bombay an' all--dat the
po' people, w'ite or black or whutever dey color is, is fixin' to rise
up in they might an' tek the money an' de gover'mint an' de fine houses
an' the cream of ever'thing away frum dem dat's had it all 'long?"

Again the judge expounded at length, touching both upon upheavals abroad
and on discords nearer home. Next it was Jeff's turn to make disclosures
having a purely local application and he made them. Listening intently,
Judge Priest puckered his bald brow into furrows of perplexity.