So I sets my niggers on the scent-it gives 'em some fun-and swears
I'll kill a nigger for every hog he steals. This I concludes on; and
I never backs out when once I fixes a conclusion.
"Hears the infernal cur-dog's yelp, yelp, yelp, down in the swamp;
then I creeps through the jungle so sly, lays low till the fellers
cum up, all jumpin'-pig ahead, then dogs, niggers follerin', puffin'
and blowin', eyes poppin' out, 'most out o' breath, just as if they
tasted the sparerib afore they'd got the critter.
"Well, ye see, I know'd all the ins and outs of the law,--keeps
mighty shy about all the judicial quibbles on't,--never takes nobody
with me whose swearin' would stand muster in a court of law. All
right on that score (Romescos exults in his law proficiency). I
makes sure o' the dogs fust, ollers keepin' the double-barrel on the
right eye for the best nigger in the lot. It would make the
longest-faced deacon in the district laugh to see the fire flash out
o' the nigger's big black eyes, when he sees the cur drop, knowin'
how he'll get the next plugs souced into him. It's only natural, cos
it would frighten a feller what warn't used to it just to see what a
thunder-cloud of agitation the nigger screws his black face into.
And then he starts to run, and puts it like streaks o' cannon-balls
chased by express lightnin'.
"'Stand still, ye thievin' varmint! hold up,--bring to a mooring:
take the mixture according to Gunter!' I shouts. The way the nigger
pulls up, begs, pleads, and says things what'll touch a feller's
tender feelins, aint no small kind of an institution.
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