“I’s glad de kunnel an’ ole miss is gone to N’Awleens,” Hopey Prophet remarked as she sank her thickly upholstered body into a deeply upholstered chair in the Gaitskill drawing-room. “I likes to take a seat an’ set down in de white folks’ parlor an’ ack white.” “If de kunnel knowed we wus settin’ in dis boodwar, he’d bu’st our necks,” Dazzle Zenor giggled as she sat down on the stool at the grand piano and ran her slim ebony fingers over the white keys.
“I’ll shore fergit to tell him whar we spent our time while he wus gone,” Hopey chuckled, as she raised herself from the chair and waddled across the room to turn on all the electric lights. “Whut Marse Tom ain’t know won’t hurt us.”
“I needs a beau to entertain me in dis nice room,” Dazzle smiled, looking up at the chandelier now blazing with light. “All dis noble arrangement is wasted on me ’thout no man to see me in de middle of it.”
“Dat remark shows dat Skeeter Butts is still pesterin’ yo’ mind,” Hopey told her. “Ef he takes a notion to pay a call-visit, I’ll shore set right here an’ chapperoon him.”
“Us won’t need you,” the girl remarked in a dreamy tone as she ran her fingers down the keyboard of the piano. “Skeeter shore do look brave in his soldier suit.”
“Brave!” Hopey snorted. “Brave! Dat Skeeter Butts is de biggest coward in de Nunited States of Loozanny!”
“He ain’t!” Dazzle protested.
“He am!” Hopey insisted, nodding her big head on her fat shoulders. “Skeeter ain’t never seed nothin’ in his life dat he wusn’t skeart of. He’s a nachel-bawn ’fraid-cat!”
“I don’t b’lieve dat,” Dazzle snapped. “Didn’t he go off an’ jine de army at de fust off-startin’ of de war?”
“Suttin he did!” Hopey chuckled. “But how come? Three nigger womens wus in dis town on de very same day; each one had a weddin’ license to marry Skeeter Butts—an’ you wus one of dem three womens! An’ whut did Skeeter up an’ do?”
“He volunteered to jine de army.”
“Shore! He wus forced to volunteer! Don’t dat show he’s a coward an’ a ’fraid-cat?” Hopey howled. “Why didn’t he stay in Tickfall like a brave man an’ marry dem three nigger womens?”
“He didn’t run because he wus skeart,” Dazzle asserted in Skeeter’s defense. “He jined de army because a lifelong war wid three nigger women wifes is too much of a muchness fer even a brave soldier like Skeeter.”
“I wish dat Mr. Bill Kaiser’s war had kotch him,” Hopey growled disloyally. “I bet dem Hunches would ’a’ throwed a skeer into Skeeter dat mought ’a’ skeart all de skeer out of him.”
“Skeeter wus a brave soldier,” Dazzle repeated obstinately.
“Soldier!” Hopey repeated with a contemptuous sniff. “Skeeter wusn’t nothin’ but a boot-black in de army, totin’ pink notes to de kunnel fer de lady folks.”
“Skeeter told me dat him an’ de military kunnel looked fer Mr. Bill Kaiser eve’ywhar,” Dazzle informed her. “It wus Mr. Bill dat wus skeart of Skeeter. He hid out, an’ Skeeter couldn’t connect up wid him or find him nowhars. Skeeter is a dangersome nigger.”
“Skeeter wus jes’ tryin’ to locate Mr. Kaiser............