_Oct. 3._ Here there are no stones but grindstones, no elevation that
can be called a hill except one mound, forty feet long and ten feet
high, and that is artificial. The roads are sandy, the fields are
broad and flat and full of weeds, the water stands about in great
pools, not running off, but absorbing into the sandy soil.
I find myself often using nigger idioms, especially in conversation
with them. It is often very difficult to make them understand English,
and one slips into the form of speech which they can most easily
comprehend. O how deliciously obtuse they are on occasions! A boy came
to me for a curry-comb for a Government mule this morning, which I was
to send to the driver on his place. While scratching my name on it, I
asked him if Jim had sent for some tobacco, as he said he should.
"Yes, sarr." "Did he send the money?" "Sarr?" Repeated. "No, Sarr."
"How much does he want?" "Don't know, Sarr." "How can I send the
tobacco, if I don't know how much he wants?" "He send for him, Sarr."
"Did he send you for it?" "No, Sarr." "Whom did he send?" "I dunno,
Sarr." "How will he get his tobacco?" "He come himself, Sarr." "Where
is he?" "Him at home, Sarr." "He is coming to get it himself, is he?"
"Sarr?" Repeated, in nigger phrase. "Yes, Sarr." "Did Bruce send you
for anything beside the curry-comb?" "Yes, Sarr." "What else?" "Sarr?"
"Did Bruce tell you fetch anything beside this?" "No, Sarr." "Is this
all Bruce told you to get?" "Yes, Sarr," with intelligence. "Go home,
then, and give that to Bruce. Good-morning."
This delay in payments is outrageous. It was bad enough to pay for May
and June work the second week in August; but here is the work of July
and August unpaid for yet, and with no prospect of its being paid for
for six weeks to come.