Dilsey and Chris and Riar are all women now, and are all married and
have children of their own; and nothing delights them more than to
tell their little ones what "us an' de white chil'en usen ter do."
And the last I heard of Aunt Nancy, the "tender," she was going to
school, but not progressing very rapidly. She did learn her letters
once, but, having to stop school to make a living, she soon forgot
them, and she explained it by saying:
"Yer see, honey, dat man wat larnt me dem readin's, he wuz sich er
onstedfus' man, an' gittin' drunk, an' votin' an' sich, tell I
furgittin' wat he larnt me; but dey's er colored gemman fum de Norf
wat's tuck him up er pay-school ober hyear in de 'catermy, an' ef'n I
kin git him fur ter take out'n his pay in dat furmifuge wat I makes, I
'low ter go ter him er time er two, caze he's er membah ub de Zion
Chu'ch, an' er mighty stedfus' man, an' dat wat he larns me den I'll
stay larnt."
And Dumps? Well, the merry, lighthearted little girl is an "old maid"
now; and if Mammy could see her, she would think she was "steady"
enough at last.
Somebody, you know, must attend to the wants and comforts of the
gray-haired woman in the asylum; and Diddie had her boy to support and
educate, so Dumps teaches school and takes care of her mother, and is
doing what Uncle Snake-bit Bob told the Sunday-school children that
God had made them to do; for
Dumps is doing "DE BES' SHE KIN.
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