"The Rev'und Gawge wanted me to go," he said, in a low tone.

"Besides, how can I know what all's in the books he done left me 'thout I learn to read ?" "That's so," assented Mammy, looking proudly at the shelves now ornamenting one corner of the little cabin with George's well-worn school-books.

Most of the volumes were upside down, because her untutored eyes knew no better than to replace them so, when she took them out to dust them with loving care.

They were George's greatest treasures, and she allowed no one to touch them, not even John Jay, to whom they had been left.
"What does a little niggah like him want of schoolin'," she had once said to Uncle Billy, when he had proposed sending the boy to school to keep him out of mischief.

"Why, that John Jay he hasn't got any mo' mind than a grasshoppah.