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Show ) 168 ROEBUCK. Valentine. "'Vhai 'vi11 bccon1c of us if 've lose our masters 7 vVho ,vi1l take keer of old fellers like me?'' "But your children and grandchildren-think of their good." "Dey's 1nighty w·ell off, n1aster. 'Ve's an niggcrs, and ,ve ,vants 'vhite folks to take keer of us. 'Ve ain't got no sense to tnl~e care of ow·selves. God hcl p us if dey set~ us free." ~Ir. C:11npbcll pas:e<.l on~ nttribntin()' these craven and servile seutin1ent:::1 to senility 'v hieh he could not enlighten. 1\..gaiu, he 'vas riding past a shop in which a likely young fello'v 'vas at \York. "IIow are you, 1ny n1an," he said, "what is your nn.n1e ?'' "Bob, sir; dey calls 1ne carpenter Bob, for short." "\Vhat pay tlo you get, l"{.obcrt, for the work you frl'C tlGing ?" "P~y, m:tster? I belongs to Colonel Fred." "Does he p:-ty you nothing for your work~" "\Vhat for would he pay me 'vhen I belongs to hin1 ?" ''lie ought to pay you, I think." "What 1nake ?" " Because no man ought to labor for nothing." "I don't 'vork for nothin'. I gits as much as I \vants off n dis big plantation. I don't pay master no thin' for tencliu' to it." "If yon were free you could go North, and get goocl wages as a n1ech~nic." "Would I haye a big plantation, like dis one, to li vc on?" "Perhaps not; but you don't O\Vn this one." "It sarves me mighty ,vell. I ain't agwine to leave it, sartin sur~, sir." ROEBUCK. 169 When Campbell fe1l in w·ith .Joe, he thought that head-man more intelligent than Bob, until he touched his favorite the1ne. Joe denounced the ide~ of separating hin1 'elf from his n1astcr a. basely disloyaL "vVhy," he s:~.id, "Iny folks has belonged to de Fairfuxcs since de very fir. t n1a.n. vV e's all Fairfaxcs. vV e's nl ways been Fairf~txe . vV e's a1 \\":1)'~ arrwine to be li"'airfaxeR. \Vhat \vonld ::\laster Fn.•tl •'? do wid out J oc? I toatecl hin1 an cl played 'vid hi n1 when he was :t boy. I \vas \vid him when he was at de University. I 'vent n conrtin' wid hi1n. I's bin his 'pcndcnce all hi.· life. l\Iy chiltlrcn's bin 'vid l1is chi1clren. vVe's jis like brother. , only he's white and l's black; anc1 he's nHt.'tcr an<l l's ~rvant, flat's all de iliifcrence 't,vixt l\faster l\·cd and old J oc." "Well, Joe, I 'vas only trying yon. I :-;ec yon aro faithful. You need not say anything about this conversation." "No, n1aster, only to l\faster Fred. vV e tells ono another everything." Campbell encountered Jnb:t doclging about, and found that this broa.CI-shou1derod, bullet-headed, belligerent brother, by dint of n1editation in the woods, had solved the question of the negro's de tiny in a different fashion. lie listened to a long harangue of Campbell in silence, fixing his eyes upon a fence-post with that look ofprofouncl in1becility and unobservant attention which none but a negro can give, and then, without shifting the con picnon. ·whites of his eyeR, he proponnJed his conclu:-;ion: "It scc1ns to me us ef dis 'vas a 'vhitc nw.n's fight over de ni()'ger. All de nigger is got to do ,vid it ~s to lay in de bush tlll de ,vhitc folks is done fou't 1t out. Den, which whips, de nigger he comes ~ut' n de |