Once in a while the nigger makes a blubber
about being free, to the captain,--and if he's fool enough t' take
any notice on't then there's a fuss; but that's just the easiest
thing to get over, if ye only know the squire, and how to manage
him. You must know the pintes of the law, and ye must do the clean
thing in the 'tin' way with the squire; and then ye can cut 'em
right off by makin' t'other pintes make 'em mean nothing. Once in a
while t'll do to make the nigger a criminal, and then there's no
trouble in't, 'cos ye can ollers git the swearin' done cheap. Old
Captain Smith used to get himself into a scrape a heap o' times by
listenin' to free nigger stories, till he gets sick and would kick
every nigger what came to him about being free. He takes the law in
his hands with a nigger o' mine once, and hands him over to a city
policeman as soon as we lands. He didn't understand the thing, ye
see, and I jist puts an Ten dollars into the pole's hand, what he
takes the hint at. 'Now, ye'll take good care on the feller," says
I, giving him a wink. "And he just keeps broad off from the old
hard-faced mayor, and runs up to the squire's, who commits him on
his own committimus. Then I gets Bob Blanker to stand 'all right'
with the squire, who's got all the say in the matter, when it's done
so. I cuts like lightenin' on to far down Mississippi, and there
gets Sam Slang, just one o' the keenest fellers in that line, about.
Sam's a hotel-keeper all at once, and I gets him up afore the
Mississippi squire; and as Sam don't think much about the swearin'
and the squire ain't particular, so he makes a five: we proves
straight off how the crittur's Sam's runaway, gets the dockerment
and sends to Bob Blanker, who puts a blinder on the squire's eye,
and gets an order to the old jailor, who must give him up, when he
sees the squire's order.
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