"Dat white man and his folks, my ol' daddy said, fifty yeah ago, dey
wu'k secret all over the Souf, from Tenn'ssee ter Louisian'. Dat was
fifty yeah ago, but my ol' daddy say when he was a piccaninny, dis
heah thing got out somehow an' de white folks down Souf dey cotch dis
white man f'om de Norf, an' done hang him, an' dey done hang and burn
a heap o' niggers all over de Souf.

"Dat wus long time befo' de wah. Dey tol' us-all dat de time wuz sho'
comin' den; but den de preachers and de doctors dey tol' us-all it
mightn't be come den, but it would come some day. Den 'long come de
wah, an' de preachers an' de doctors an' de white folks up Norf dey
done tol' us, nigger gwine ter be free, not to have ter wu'k no mo'.
Huh! Now look at us! We wu'k jest as hard as we ever did, an' we git
no mo' fer it dan whut we eat an' weah. We kain't vote. Dey done
robbed us outen dat. We kain't be nobody. We kain't git 'long. We
hatter wu'k jest same, wu'k, wu'k, wu'k, all de time. Nigger jest as
well be daid as hatter wu'k all de time--got no vote, ner nuthin'.
Dat's whut de Queen she done tol' me right plain las' meetin' we had.
She say white folks up Norf gwine to help nigger now, right erlong.
Things gwine be different now, right soon."

Murmurs, singularly stirring, peculiarly ominous, answered this
extended speech. Encouraged, the orator went on. "We ain't good as
slaves, we-all ain't. We wu'k jest ez hahd. Dey gin us a taste o' de
white bread, an' den dey done snatch it 'way f'om us. We want ter be
like white folks. Up Norf dey tell us we gwine ter be, but down heah
dey won't let us."

Now suddenly the voice broke into a wail and rose again in a half-
chant. Evidently the storekeeper was absent, perhaps across the way