I declined the proffered seat at the table, the cooking utensils being any thing but inviting, and contented myself with the brandy and water; but, forgetting for a moment his color, I motioned to the darky--who was as wet and jaded, and much more hungry than I was--to take the place offered to me. The negro did not seem inclined to do so, but the woman, observing my gesture, yelled out, her eyes flashing with anger:
"No, sar! No darkies eats with us. Hope you don't reckon _yerself_ no better than a good-for-nothin', no account nigger!"
"I beg your pardon, madam; I intended no offence. Scipio has served me very faithfully for two days, and is very tired and hungry. I forgot myself."
This mollified the lady, and she replied:
"Niggers is good enuff in thar place, but warn't meant to 'sociate with white folks."
There may have been some ground for a distinction in that case; there certainly was a difference between the specimens of the two races then before me; but, not being one of the chivalry, it struck me that the odds were on the side of the black man. The whites were shiftless, ragged, and starving; the black well clad, cleanly, energetic, and as much above the others in intellect as Jupiter is above a church steeple. To be sure, color was against him, and he was, after all, a servant in the land of chivalry and of servant-owners. Of course the woman was right.
She soon resumed the conversation with this remark:
"Reckon yer a stranger in these parts; whar d'ye come from?"
"Oh! yas; I've heern tell on it: that's whar the Cunnel sells his turpentime. Quite a place, arnt it?"
"Yes, quite a place. Something larger than all South Carolina."
"What d'ye say? Larger nor South Carolina. Kinder reckon tain't, is't?"
"Du tell! 'Taint so large as Charles'n, is't?"
"Yes, twenty times larger than Charleston."
"Lord o'massy! How does all the folks live thar?"
"Ye don't have no niggers thar, does ye?"
"Have Ablisherners thar, don't ye? them people that go agin the South?"
"They go for freeing the slaves. Some of them think a black man as good as a white one."
"Quar, that; yer an Ablisherner, arnt ye?"
"What's that? Never heerd on them afore."
"An old-fashioned Whig, madam, is a man whose political principles are perfect, and who is as perfect as his principles."
