One morning, Mollie, the colored maid, appeared before her mistress,
carrying, folded in a handkerchief, a five-dollar gold piece and all her
earthly possessions in the way of jewelry.
This package she proffered her mistress, with the request that Miss
Sallie take it for safe keeping.
"Why, Mollie!" exclaimed the mistress in surprise. "Are you going away?"
"Naw'm, I ain' goin' nowheres," Mollie declared. "But me an' Jim Harris
we wuz married this mawnin'. Yas'm, Jim, he's a new nigger in town. You
don' know nothin' 'bout him, Miss Sallie. I don' know nothin' 'bout him
myself. He's er stranger to me."
Miss Sallie glanced severely at the little package of jewelry.
"But, Mollie," she demanded, "don't you trust him?"
"Yas'm," replied Mollie, unruffled. "Cose I trus' him, personally--but
not wid ma valuables."