crippled? Hey? You may thank your stars if you ain't no more crippled than what I am. You hear that, don't you? Hey?"
Cassy paid no attention to him, but addressed herself to Mrs. Shacklett. "I tell you now, I 'm new to this town, bran' new. It hain't been two hours sence I landed here, an' this is the first door I 've knocked at. I knocked a dozen times, an' I stood thar waitin' to hear somebody say, 'Go off,' or 'Come in,' an' when I did n't hear nothin', I says to myself, says I, 'I 'll thess go in anyhow, an' rest myself, an' fix the baby up, an' maybe thar 's a well in the yard whar I kin git a drink of water.' I never no more 'spected to see you-all a-settin' here than I 'spected to fly. Hit took me back so I did n't know what to say. I hain't had sech a turn in I dunno when."
"If you want water," said Mrs. Shacklett, "you 'll find a bucket out there on the shelf and a well in the yard. We ain't had nobody to draw us none sence they come after our dead nigger. I tell you I was mighty sorry to lose the gyirl. She was worth twenty thousand dollars if she was worth a cent."
Mr. Shacklett turned half around in his
