19

you must know then - that, that [cross out] Captain has been
after me two or three times, and he says as how, if I will
let him have Miss Lucy, he'll give me forty dollars - real silver
dollars and more than that, he will bring a heap of com
pany to the house - so that we shall never want for nothing -

Now [daddy -crossed out], I clean refused him and told him I despised
him and his dollars too. - but law whats to be done - if
the quality would pay you and we could but get a livin,
I would scorn to to do the like – But after all, ones own
flesh and blood is dearer than another body's, and [ if - crossed out] so I've been
reckoning in my own mind – I would go to morrow n conclude
the matter with the captain." –

"Thats a bad reckoning old woman, and I can't be o' consenting
to the like wickedness". –

"Nor would I either [daddy - crossed out] – if to morrow wasn't pay-day