When we approached Washington, I proposed rewarding the cook for the incalculable service she had rendered, but she replied: "No, ma'am, I will not take anything from you 'cept that apron!

"I don't recollec' any playthings us had 'cept a ball my young marster gimme.

My mother had no furniture 'cept an old-time wooden bedbig bed.

I don't recollect nothin' bout a one of 'em 'cept my old boss.

He had a right smart plantation an' kep' all his Niggers, 'cept one house boy, out in the fiel' a-workin'.

"Does I know de mockin'bird, I reck'n so'bout de fust t'ing I did know, 'cept how ter suck sugar-cane.

"Nobody bane round," he rejoined, and then, after a moment's pause, "'cept Yim Cassell and his boy Dan." "Jim Cassell and his son," echoed Roy, "the very people we don't want around here.

"Why, Billie," Laura stopped in her transports to regard her friend with wide eyes, "aren't you simply wild about the place too?" "Oh, I suppose so," said Billie, adding as a shadow crossed her face: "The folks think I'm awful, all 'cept Chet, and I suppose I ambut I'd give the whole place, tunnels, spooky hallways, ghostly attic, and everything for just a few little hundred dollar bills.

"I never was any hand to play any games 'cept 'Chick.

They didn't take nothin' from my white people 'cept some chickens and a hog, and cut down the hams.

I peeped out a crack it was already closed 'cept a big crack, I seed through.

Us fiel' han's never knowed nothin' 'cept weather an' dirt an' to weigh cotton.

Here is what you gave me this morning, 'cept a half-dollar I spent in treating John.

"By the look of him I guess his country-man wouldn't part with anything 'cept a drink.

I been here ever since cept W.T. Edmonds and P.H. Conn sent me back home to get hands.

He didn' care fer nothin' 'cept farmin'.

Then as he stooped for her to arrange the posy, she whispered: "I wouldn't care, 'cept fer what folks must say.

"I lived near Taylorsville, Kentucky, in Spencer County, nearly all my life, 'cept the last fo' or five yea's I'se been livin' here.

I never knew she hed any nieces, 'cept them two gals uv Jedge Hildreth's down ter Marlborough.

Ther' ain't nobody else, 'cept Miss Goby, an' she's a big un.

That lovin', givin' up, suff'rin', dyin' part, ye know it all yerself, an' I can't kinder say much on it, 'cept when I 'm jest all by myself, or'long

Ise libed in dis place all my bawn days, an' I ain't neber done nuffin to you, Mahs' Junius, 'cept keepin' you from breakin' you neck when you was too little to know better.

But I'm very fond of him,fonder of him than anythink else, 'cept my little Dolly; and I've made up my mind as his Master shall be my master, and he's always ready to tell me all he knows about him.

"All de Niggers on de place was born in de fam'ly an' was kin, 'cept my ma.

"I never did any playin', 'cept plain marbles and goin' in swimmin'.