"
"You can make it fifty just as easy," said Turner. "Niggers are all
just a passell o' black fools. Bud would 'a' b'en out now, if it
hadn't be'n for me. I bought him fer six months. I kept close watch of
him for the first five, and then along to'ds the middle er the las'
month I let on I'd got keerliss, an' he run away. Course I put the
dawgs on 'im, an' followed 'im here, where his woman is, an' got you
after 'im, and now he's good for six months more."
"The woman is a likely gal an' a good cook," said Haines. "_She'd_ be
wuth a good 'eal to you out at the stockade."
"That's a shore fact," replied the other, "an' I need another good
woman to help aroun'. If we'd 'a' thought about it, an' give' her a
chance to hide Bud and feed him befo' you took 'im up, we could 'a'
filed a charge ag'inst her for harborin' 'im."
"Well, I kin do it nex' time, fer he'll run away ag'in--they always
do. Bud's got a vile temper."
"Yes, but he's a good field-hand, and I'll keep his temper down. Have
somethin' mo'?"
"I've got to go back now and feed the pris'ners," said Haines, rising
after he had taken another drink; "an' I'll stir Bud up so he'll raise
h--ll, an' to-morrow morning I'll make another charge against him
that'll fetch his fine up to fifty and costs."
"Which will give 'im to me till the cotton crop is picked, and several
months more to work on the Jackson Swamp ditch if Fetters gits the
contract. You stand by us here, Haines, an' help me git all the han's
I can out o' this county, and I'll give you a job at Sycamo' when yo'r
time's up here as constable.
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