human
I am at best a light sleeper, she remarked.
gpt
The smallest thing disturbs me. Now I distinctly heard Mr. Tinsley laugh, although he must have been in his own tent.
human
I'd ruther to laugh like that than sing like Robinson Crusoe in the victrola, said Bobby.
gpt
I kin holler real loud but I ain't nothin' of a big laugher. Josh, he don't make no noise 'tall when he laughs. He jist shakes his innards. He was shakin' em this morning 'cause Susan said she had a bee sting on her toe, the reason she is a-limpin' so.
human
Douglas, said Miss Somerville,
gpt
I can't see why Bobby should use the language of a negro. He is quite old enough to begin to speak properly.
human
Well, you see, Cousin Lizzie, he is really nothing but a baby, and Mother and Father have never corrected him because Father said he would drop it soon enough and he thinks it is so amusing.
gpt
Baby, your grandmother! I am 'most a man an' Josh is goin' ter learn me how to say we uns an' you uns like he does. He says his teacher an' Gwen is tryin' to make him talk properer, but he ain't goin' to talk no way but what his four bears talks. I wish I had four bears what could talk. I forgot to ask Josh to tell me about them bears but I will, some time.
human
Josh, said Lewis to the mountain boy, whose blue eyes had an extra twinkle in them that morning as he hitched his mule to a nearby pine tree, waiting for orders,
gpt
Not if we uns kin git some kerosene smeared on in time.
human
Well, you smear on some kerosene in time and go get that hornet's nest out of Susan's room.
gpt
Well, bless Bob! How did you uns know we uns put it thar under her bed?
human
Never mind how I knew it. You just go and get it and take it far from the camp and then come back here and report for work.
gpt
He don't look mad, thought Josh.
human
I hope he ain't mad with we uns. Josh had met his idol in Lewis Somerville. Boylike he admired strength more than anything in the world, and could not this young giant lift a log and place it on his shoulders and carry it to the desired spot as easily as he himself could carry a twig? There was a poetical streak in this mountain boy, too, that saw in Lewis the young knight.
gpt
Well, sir, he said cheerfully to Lewis,
human
Now you are going to take your punishment for being no gentleman.
gpt
Gentleman! Huh! We uns ain't never set up to be no gentleman.
human
Oh, I didn't know that. When I hired you to come work for my cousins, I understood, of course, that you were a gentleman. Otherwise I would not have considered you for a moment. Do you suppose I would have any one come around these ladies who are everything in the world to me if he were not a gentleman?
gpt
There's that nigger, Oscar! We uns is as good as he is. He ain't no gentleman.
human
He is as good a gentleman as there is in the land. He came up here with these young ladies whom he has known ever since they were babies rather than desert them when he thought he might be needed. I have never known Oscar to say a coarse word or do an ungentle act. I, too, have known him all my life. He is a good, clean man, inside and out, and would cut off his hand before he would scare a helpless woman.
gpt
You say nothing but a negro as though that were the lowest thing in the world, and still just now you spoke with a certain pride of being as good as one. Now I tell you, you are not as good as one unless you act better. You have a long line of free English ancestors behind you and these poor things are but recently out of slavery. Now you come with me and take your punishment if you want to stay and work for this camp.