"'Thank you, Uncle Jake. Come to the clerk for your bill of sale this
evenin',' says the auctioneer.
"I watches the sale a while longer, 'n' then mooches into the big barn
where the yearlin's 'n' two-year-olds is waitin' to be sold. They're a
nice lot of colts, but I ain't interested in this young stuff--colts is
too much of a gamble fur me. Only about one in fifty'll make good.
Somebody else can spend their money on 'em at that kind of odds.
"I goes out of the colt barn 'n' begins to ramble around, lampin'
things in general. I comes to a shed full of plows, 'n' I has to laugh
when I sees 'em. I'm standin' there with a grin on my face when a
nigger comes 'round the shed 'n' sees me lookin' at them plows.
"'Fine plows, sah, an' vehy cheap,' he says.
"'Do I look like I needs a plow?' I says to him.
"'No, sah,' says the nigger, lookin' me over. 'I cyant rightly say you
favohs plowin', but howkum you ain' tendin' de sale?'
"'I don't see nothin' over there that suits me,' I says.
"The nigger is sore in a minute.
"'You is suttanly hahd to please, white man,' he says. 'Ain' no finah
colts in Kaintucky dan dem.'
"'That may be so, but how about Tennessee?' I says, just to get him
goin'.
"'Tennessee! Tennessee!' he says. 'What you talkin' 'bout? Why, _we_
does de fahm wuck wid likelier colts dan _dey_ sends to de races.'
"'I've seed some nifty babies down there,' I says.
"'Look-a-hyar, man!' he says, 'you want to see a colt what am a colt?'
"'How far?' I says.
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