that nigger, ’n’ I lay I’d skin every last nigger on this place but I’d find out who done it, s’I; moreover, s’I — “

“A dozen says you! — forty couldn’t ’a’ done everything that’s been done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they’ve been made; look at that bed-leg sawed off with ’m, a week’s work for six men: look at that nigger made out’n straw on the bed; and look at — “

“You may well say it, Brer Hightower!

It’s jist as I was a-sayin’ to Brer Phelps, his own self. S’e, what do you think of it, Sister Hotchkiss? s’e. Think o’ what, Brer Phelps? s’I. Think o’ that bed-leg sawed off that a way? s’e?