|
||||||||
youll see. Lor! to think of some of our dinners! Yer mind dat ar great chicken pie I made when we guv de dinner to General Knox? I and Missis, we come pretty near quarrelling about dat ar crust. What does get into ladies sometimes, I dont know; but, sometimes, when a body has de heaviest kind o sponsibility on em, as ye may say, and is all kinder seris and taken up, dey takes dat ar time to be hangin round and kinder interferin! Now, Missis, she wanted me to do dis way, and she wanted me to do dat way; and, finally, I got kinder sarcy, and, says I, Now, Missis, do jist look at dem beautiful white hands o yourn with long fingers, and all a sparkling with rings, like my white lilies when de dew s on em; and look at my great black stumpin hands. Now, dont ye think dat de Lord must have meant me to make de pie-crust, and you to stay in de parlor? Dar! I was jist so sarcy, Masr George. And what did mother say? said George. Say?why, she kinder larfed in her eyesdem great handsome eyes o hern; and, says she, Well, Aunt Chloe, I think you are about in the right on t, says she; and she went off in de parlor. She oughter cracked me over de head for bein so sarcy; but dars whar t isI cant do nothin with ladies in de kitchen! Well, you made out well with that dinner,I remember everybody said so, said George. Didnt I? And want I behind de dinin-room door dat bery day? and didnt I see de General pass his plate three times for some more dat bery pie?and, says he, You must have an uncommon cook, Mrs. Shelby. Lor! I was fit to split myself. And de Gineral, he knows what cookin is, said Aunt Chloe, drawing herself up with an air. Bery nice man, de Gineral! He comes of one of de bery fustest families in Old Virginny! He knows whats what, now, as well as I dode Gineral. Ye see, theres pints in all pies, Masr George; but tant everybody knows what they is, or as orter be. But the Gineral, he knows; I knew by his marks he made. Yes, he knows what de pints is! By this time, Master George had arrived at that pass to which even a boy can come (under uncommon circumstances, when he really could not eat another morsel), and, therefore, he was at leisure to notice the pile of woolly heads and glistening eyes which were regarding their operations hungrily from the opposite corner. Here, you Mose, Pete, he said, breaking off liberal bits, and throwing it at them; you want some, dont you? Come, Aunt Chloe, bake them some cakes. And George and Tom moved to a comfortable seat in the chimney-corner, while Aunte Chloe, after baking a goodly pile of cakes, took her baby on her lap, and began alternately filling its mouth and her own, and distributing to Mose and Pete, who seemed rather to prefer eating theirs as they rolled about on the floor under the table, tickling each other, and occasionally pulling the babys toes. O! go long, will ye? said the mother, giving now and then a kick, in a kind of general way, under the table, when the movement became too obstreperous. Cant ye be decent when white folks comes to see ye? Stop dat ar, now, will ye? Better mind yerselves, or Ill take ye down a button-hole lower, when Masr George is gone! What meaning was couched under this terrible threat, it is difficult to say; but certain it is that its awful indistinctness seemed to produce very little impression on the young sinners addressed. La, now! said Uncle Tom, they are so full of tickle all the while, they cant behave theirselves. Here the boys emerged from under the table, and, with hands and faces well plastered with molasses, began a vigorous kissing of the baby. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Copyright: All texts on Bibliomania are © Bibliomania.com Ltd, and may not be reproduced in any form without our written permission. See our FAQ for more details. | ||||||||