nigger,
has he? Well, me an' Corny's a little tired, so we'll take a little blow
here in de shade uf de woods, an' hab a little good soshyble talk wid
our little marster."

So saying, he threw his plow-line over the plow-handle, and mounted the
panel of the fence next to the one on which Bushie was sitting, and
squared himself for the confab, which the little master opened thus;
"Burl, just look at them crows up there on the dead limb of that big
acorn-tree; what are they doing?"

"Dey's holdin' a pra'er-meetin', I 'spec'. No, not dat--camp-meetin',
dey's so noisy. Or, may be, now"--eyeing his black brethren with close
attention--"may be dey's holdin' a kunvintion, like Gener'l Wilkerson
an' t' other big guns, to hab ol' Kaintuck stan' 'pon her own legs, so
she kin lay off lan' as she please, an' fight de Injuns on her own
hook."

"But why do they make so much noise?" inquired Bushie.

"Beca'se dey likes to hear 'emselves talk--eb'rybody wantin' to do all
de talkin', an' nobody wantin' to do none uf de list'nin'--jes' like
people."

"Don't you wish you had Betsy Grumbo out here, Burl? How she'd make
their black feathers fly! And the woods are alive with squirrels. Just
see how they are running up and down the trees and along the top of the
fence."

"Ef I had Betsy Grumbo out here, de woods wouldn't be alive wid
squirrels, an' dem black rogues up dar wouldn't be so near by--so easy
an' sassy."

"Why wouldn't they?" inquired Bushie.

"Beca'se dey'd smell Betsy's breaf, an' make 'emselves scarce."

"What's the matter with Betsy's breath?"

"W'y, Bushie, if Betsy is always belchin' gunpowder, don't you know her
breaf mus' smell uf gunpowder?"

"Burl," said Bushie, turning his eyes from the crows and fixing them
wide open on his black chum's face, "I killed a rattlesnake yesterday,
while I was out in the woods hunting May-apples--a rattlesnake as big as
your leg."

"Now, Bushie, ain't you lettin' on?" said Burl with an incredulous grin.
"Wusn't it a black-snake, big as your leg?"

"Do rattlesnakes always rattle with their tails when they poke out their
heads to bite a man?"

"Yas, always; or to bite a boy, either."

"And are rattlesnakes ever black?"

"Neber, 'ceptin on de back, an' dare dey's brown an' yaller."

"Well, then, I reckon it must have been a black-snake, for it was black,
and didn't rattle its tail when it poked out its head to bite me."

"Now, dare's reason in dat; dare's reason in all