n' pol'tishuns say
thet, but 'tain't so. I kin do half agin more work in a day then th'
best nig' I've got, an' I've dun it, tu, time an' agin, an' it didn't
hurt me nuther. Ye knows ef a man hev a wife and young 'uns 'pendin' on
him, an' arn't much 'forehanded, he'll work like th' devil. I've dun it,
and ye hev ef ye war ever put ter it; but th' nig's, why the' hain't got
no wives and young 'uns ter work fur--the law doan't 'low 'em ter hev
any--the' hain't nary a thing but thar carcasses, an' them's thar
masters'."

"You say a man works better for being free; then you must think 'twould
be well to free the negroes?"

"In coorse, I does. Jest luk at them nig's o' mine; they're ter all
'tents an' purposes free, 'case I use 'em like men, an' the' knows the'
kin go whenever the' d----d please. See how the' work--why, one on 'em
does half as much agin as ony hard-driv' nigger in creation."

"What would you do with them, if they were _really_ free?"

"Du with 'em? why, hire 'em, an' make twice as much eout on 'em as I
does now."

"But I don't think the two races were meant to live together."

"No more'n the' warn't. But 'tain't thar fault thet they's har. We
hain't no right ter send 'em off. We orter stand by our'n an' our
faders' doin's. The nig' keers more fur his hum, so durned pore as it
ar', then ye or I does fur our'n. I'd pack sech off ter Libraria or th'
devil, as wanted ter go, but I'd hev no 'pulsion 'bout it."

"Why, my good friend, you're half-brother to Garrison. You don't talk to
your neighbors in this way?"

"Wal; I doan't;" he replied, laughing. "Ef I dun it, they'd treat me to
a coat uv tar, and ride me out uv th' deestrict raather sudden, I
reckon; but yer a Nuthener, an' the' all take nat'rally ter freedum,
excep' th' d----d dough-faces, an' ye aren't one on 'em, I'll swar."

"Well, I'm not. Do many of your neighbors think as you do?"

"Reckon not many round har; but op in Cart'ret, whar I cum from, heaps
on 'em do, though the' darn't say so."

By this time we had reached the still, and, directing his attention to
the enormous quantity of rosin that had been run into the pit which I
have spoken of, I asked him why he threw so much valuable material away.

"Wal, 'tain't wuth nothin' har. Thet's th' common, an' it won't bring in
York, now, more'n a dollar forty-five. It costs a dollar an' two bits
ter get it thar, and pay fur sellin' on it, an' th' barr'l's wuth th'
diff'rence. I doan't ship n