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"You know the people pretty well, then?"

"I knows dem all I knows most of 'es in dis world and in de next"

"This is a great cotton country?"

"Dey don't raise no cotton nohat dey used to when old Gen'rel Cresswell fust come from Carolina; den it was a bale and a half to the acre on stalks dat looked like young brushwood Dat was cotton"

"You know the Cresswells, then?"

"Know dem? I knowed dem afore dey was born"

"They are--wealthy people?"

"Dey rolls in money and dey'se quality, too No shoddy upstarts dem, but born to purple, lady, born to purple Old Gen'ral Cresswell had niggers and acres no end back dere in Carolina He brung a part of dem here and here his son, de father of dis Colonel Cresswell, was born De son--I knowed hiers and ten tousand acres afore de war"

"Were they kind to their slaves?"

"Oh, yaas, yaas, ers and wouldn't let de drivers whip 'em much"

"And these Cresswells today?"

"Oh, dey're quality--high-blooded folks--dey'se lost soers, but, lordy, nuttin' can buy de Cresswells, dey naturally owns de world"

"Are they honest and kind?"