"I would n' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head-dat is, if he warn't white. I would n't 'low no nigger to call me dat."

"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, Do you know how to talk French?"

"Well, den, why could n't he say it?"

"Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it."

"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en' I doan want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."

"Looky here, Jim;

does a cat talk like we do?"

"No, a cat don't."

"Well, does a cow?"

"No, a cow don't, nuther."

"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?” "No, dey don't."

"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?"

"Course."

"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?"

"Why, mos' sholy it is."

"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that."

"Is a cat a man, Huck?”

"No."

"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a Is a cow a man? er is a cow a cat?"

man.

"No, she ain't either of them."

"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?" "Yes."

"Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!”

I see it warn't no use wasting words. So I quit.

(From Huckleberry Finn)

MARK TWAIN

BROADWAY AND TENTH STREET

SILENT he walks, and bowed,

One of an alien crowd

In the thronging lonely street

Borne on the human tide

That floods toward the drab East Side
With a million weary feet.

Then to his peasant brain,

Knotted and dull with pain,

Come the evening bells of Grace;

Up to the stagnant skies

He lifts his tired eyes

And sees another place

Hills of gray and rose,

From whence a clear stream flows
To a curving summer shore;

Bells that call the morn

To the land where he was born,

Where he returns no more.

HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG

A BOY OF THE GHETTO

He goes out with his Dreams

Through the dingy city square,

Purple- and silver-winged

They go with him everywhere.

The quarreling hags at the windows
Have voices unkind, unsweet,

But his Dreams have silver voices
And starrily-slippered feet.

The workmen push on the pavement
And laugh and curse as they go,
But he is far with his Dreams

On a road they do not know;

He walks far off with the Dreams
That whisper and sing beside,
And his face is glad and still

And his eyes are burning-wide.

He goes out with his Dreams

Through a golden wonder-place, With the light of God in his eyes And the peace of God in his face.

MARGARET WIDDEMER

A NEGRO TO AMERICA

"How would you have us as we are?
Or sinking 'neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star
Or gazing empty in despair?

"Rising or falling? Men or things?
With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?
Strong, willing sinews in your wings?
Or tightening chains about your feet?"
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

THE LITTLE ELFMAN

I MET a little Elfman once,
Down where the lilies blow.
I asked him why he was so small,
And why he did n't grow.

He slightly frowned, and with his eye
He looked me through and through
"I'm just as big for me," he said,

"As you are big for you!"

JOHN KENDRICK BANGS

THE MAN HE KILLED

"HAD he and I but met

By some old ancient inn,

We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

"I shot him dead because
Because he was my foe,
Just so my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

"He thought he 'd 'list, perhaps,
Offhand like- just as I;

Was out of work had sold his traps

No other reason why.

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!

You shoot a fellow down

You'd treat, if met where any

Or help to half a crown.'

(From The Dynasts)

وو

bar is,

THOMAS HARDY

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 't is mighty clear

This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake :

"I see," quoth he, "the elephant

Is very like a snake!"