Property

The old slave snapped out orders to the master the same as he had when Elias was a boy. But then the slave remembered himself, and raised his old bones from the chair.

"It was right kind of you to bring me this here chair," he said. "I do most appreciate it. Won't you sit down, Master 'Lias."

Cesar sat. Elias stood stiffly, not daring even to lean against the wall any more. When his Pa had been away from the plantation, which was often, it had fallen to Cesar to whip the boys for their mischief, and Elias, who didn't give a fig for his pa's whippings, had been terrified of him. He still was. Cesar began his tale.

"You ask me as how your uncle Roger got religion - that there Methody. Well I hear tell it was a preacher walk by as he was at plow his field on a Sunday. And that preacher man he walk by, whistling and looking other way, like he don't see a man who be at breaking the sabbath. And he walk most by, and that Roger he yells out 'You am a bastard! You there, your mother was a she-ass!'

"And that preacher man he thinks he turn the other cheek, and he say 'A very good day to you, Sir. A fine morning.' And he takes off his hat and he bows like he be in church.

"And that Roger he starts to whip his mule, and he say 'You am a bastard, Mule!' and he laugh, because he made the preacher man think he was yelling at him, when he was yelling at his mule. And when and he do say, 'your mother was a she-ass,' he was just be at talking to his mule. But the preacher man he say: 'Why do you beat your mule, Sir?'

"And that Roger he say "This mule am lazy! This mule am no good! She am all spavined and broke down, and sure she enought won't pull the plow!" and he commences to go whip that mule something awful, and the mule make a powerful of noise and she kicks and kicks, and she catch him a kick, and then he sets in to whip till he most whip the hair off her hindpart, but he can't get her no how to pull the plow. And the preacher man say: 'I can make her pull.' And Roger he says 'I bet to God you can't.'

"And the preacher man he say to the mule, 'You is a very fine mule. I am never be seeing such strong legs. And such a coat. Why I do declare I can and see myself in it, it be shiny as a peering glass. And such a sweet face, like on a pretty girl who am go to church! I can tell you are a patient mule, with a loving heart.' And sure enough that mule up and pulled the plow right along to the end of the furrow.

And then that Roger he say: 'We and always pays our bets in my family. I say I bet to God, and I'll pay to God. I'll go along with you to the meeting today and I'll do what you say me to do in the meeting. That's for payment, preacher, but ken you be more a sinner than I be.'

"And the preacher ask: 'Why you say I be a sinner?' And Roger he say, 'Why, that mule! You sure enough told her a pack of lies - a right pack of lies'."

Elias laughed, if only to stop Cesar from saying "a right pack of lies!" over and over again.

He asked Cesar: "And that was it? Uncle Roger he went to the Methody meeting house one time, to pay a bet, and he be Methody ever since?"

"Weren't no Methody meeting house. They meet together 'neath that big old oak on Master Josh Carleton his place. And there weren't but five or six in the county, those days. Now you can't hardly fling a rock without you hit a Methody, and by and large you can hit one as could do with a rock flung at him. But your Uncle Roger he got powerful religion from that preacher man."

"I don't like to speak ill of them that is dead, but I never saw my Uncle Roger turn the other cheek."

"No Sir. But he sure enough turned up the cheeks of any boy say the name of God. Any boy say 'God damn!' and Master Roger he whip him on the bare breech. Didn't he whip you once, Master 'Lias?"

"Not for swearing. But me, and little Sally Waters, and his own son Matt - he whip us something grand on the bank of White Oak Creek. That was what I wanted to ask you about."

"Supposing you tell me what happened" -- that was what old Cesar used to say when he thought little Elias had earned a whipping. And little Elias would confess. Every time. Sometimes Elias confessed to worse than he done, just to make old Cesar stop his questions. And when little Elias had spoken of all his sins, plus extras, he would ask: "Cesar, do I deserve to be whip for that?" And Cesar would puff his pipe a spell, and then would he say: 'I reckon you do, young Master 'Lias, if you say so. How many do you be thinking?' As a boy, Elias had never been questioned by Cesar without the old slave finding out some sin or other. Elias had paid for his fornications as a boy, and paid hard, because Cesar could always make him confess. But he wasn't a boy any more, and Cesar was his brother's slave. His to whip, if there was any whipping done. And even as a boy, when he'd confessed his fornications and been whipped for them, he'd known quite well that Cesar did more fornication than ever the boys he whipped, put together.

Elias began his tale: "We three had gone fishing; me, and cousin Matt, and Sally Waters. Up along the creek at the Bryan plantation. And then we came back down the creek."

"No Sir. I don't mean the old Bryan place, I mean the place Capt. Bryan lives now - what was Josh Cady his plantation then."

"So you be coming down this side the big creek, and so you has to cross White Oak Creek where it flows in?"

"Aye, Cesar. And Uncle Roger--that was just after he got religion--he be at saying it ain't proper, that it be a sin, for male and female to swim together. He say a girl be a harlot if she be naked with boys. But Sally she say: my Pa don't hold dancing a sin like them Methody do, and my Pa he don't hold drinking a sin like them Methody do, and I ain't no Methody, and I sure enough ain't walking five miles, just to keep two boys from seeing my hide, what you two boys be at seeing all my life!. And I say my Pa ain't no Methody neither."

"Master 'Lias, what your Pa tell you? About your Uncle Roger? What he tell you, and your brother John?"

"When Uncle Roger got religion, Pa say we should obey Uncle Roger about swearing and the commandments, and Pa give Uncle Roger leave to lash us if he catched us, as if we were his own boys."

"You think your Pa would have wanted you obey? About this, too? About you seeing Miss Sally and she be bare?"

Cesar folded a finger. He was keeping track of Elias's sins, the way he had done when Elias had confessed as a boy. Elias wondered if the old man in his mind was back at the old plantation, counting up the whipping to give the young master? Or did the old slave think he could still whip his boys - did he think Elias was here to be whipped? But then Elias realized that he himself was standing bowed, and holding his hands, one inside the other, silently begging Cesar to go easy, the way he had done as a child. And he was prancing, his legs tight like a nervous colt, because his arse was stinging - stinging and sore - as it had felt, as a boy, whenever he was questioned by old Cesar. Elias had used to say to his brother John, that knowing a whipping was coming was worse than the whipping itself. The man Elias now felt the whip stinging his arse, the same as the boy Elias used to feel, for just one thin black finger folded over. He saw in his mind's eye the little white boy pull down his britches and bend over the block, to be whipped by the old black man. He felt the sting of the whip across that little white arse.

He continued his tale: "Cousin Matthew couldn't say his pa was no Methody, 'cause his pa was Uncle Roger. So he say we should not swim bare together, as me and Sally wanted to do. He say we boys should swim first, while she looks the other way, and when we got across, we could call out and then Sally could swim over. And so we boys takes off our clothes, and Sally she not supposed to look, but she do look. And then we swim across. And on the far side there were some pohiccory, and we goes behind that, and calls out that Sally could cross. But that there pohiccory - we could see right through it."

Cesar folded another finger. Elias felt the second helpimg of strokes already. He began to wonder how many it would be this time.

"We be at watching her, and so we did not put clothes on. We did never bother to look at her, when we did swim bare together before that day, but now we did want so much see her, that we strained to see even an inch of her. And then, as we be at watching her, she wade the deepest part, and she do drop her bundle of clothes, and fall into the water. She went in without making a sound; and if we hadn't been a-watching, we wouldn't a known, Cesar. Then that Matthew, he runs right through the 'hiccory bush, all bare, so he be scratched all over from the pohiccory thorns, but I goes 'round. And Matthew he jumps in the creek and pulls out Sally, and pulls her to the bank, and I help pull her up. And when he see she still has breath, he hugs and kisses her, where they be at lying on the mud.

"And then we see Uncle Roger on his horse, looking down from the bank. 'Uncle Roger,' I says, 'your Matthew has saved Sally her life!' He say: 'You be swiving with a harlot, and unless you be saved you will burn in Hell fire!'

"I says we be none, and I show him Sally her clothes a-floating down the creek, and I say as how we was behind the trees when she did swim, so as not to see her, and he might see our clothes there still, if he look. And I says, see how Sally do gasp hard for breath, for she do nearly drown."

"He did not. For both our cocks were risen, Cesar. Though I know not how that was for I swear I had no thought of swiving at that time."

"No, for he said that whores are often in such a way, from heat of passion. And he said would whip her first of all, for that she was a harlot. And so he did, though she had scarce her wits about her yet to know the reason she was beat. But indeed the whip revived her."

"As he whipped he asked her what filthy harlot tricks she did with us: if she had taken our cocks into her mouth, and if she had let us put - indeed I cannot speak of it, it was so filthy what he asked her. And Cesar, she answered him so meek and modest. But that enraged him, and so we watched her white arse striped, and made red and raw altogether. Down her legs and between her legs, and on her privates, with his horsewhip. He made her spread her knees, to feel more the pain as he whipped between her legs. And besides he whipped her across, he whipped her along, into the valley of her arse. I would not whip a slave so."

"She did not. She said that all that was done, was her doing, and that she had played the part of a harlot, to tempt us, and she was a sinner to be whipped, but that Matthew was no way in blame and had done nothing at all. And so said he of her, when he was whipped."

"I do not speak of that. I wish to know what passed when she was carried home to her father, his plantation. Did you ever hear of that, from some slave at Master Waters his place?"

"Should? Why he should have put her to bed and called her nurse to cosset her. That is what he should! Not called her a whipped harlot before all, before her own people!"

"It was soon known to all the county that she had been whipped for whoring. He must have told."

"That Miss Sally was whipped, must be knowed to some, Master, without that Master Roger has told any tale. Were her clothes plucked from the water?"

"No, they had gone down toward the sea before we thought of it. Uncle Roger did give his coat, to cover her nakedness. But then we did lift her, and set her before him on his horse, and that did make her to wail so, from soreness of her arse, that he must lay her across the horse, arse uppermost. He had his whip in his hand, and her red arse before him, and he did urge her to confess, to her harlot tricks--for she still denied that Matthew had entered her, as indeed he had not. And so he was fresh enraged as they rode away, and I do think he whipped her more as they rode."

"And so they rode to Col. Waters his place. Five miles it be by road, Master 'Lias, from White Oak Creek to Col. Waters his place, and any might be at seeing them as they rode along, Master 'Lias--have you thought on that? And so they came thus to Col. Waters his plantation, where the slaves they would help her down and they see her bare and that her arse be striped. 'Twas enough set tongues to wag, Elias. I think Master Roger he never say, this be a whore. Was it spoken of, that you and his own son Matthew, was accused with her?"

"So your Uncle Roger did not speak - He would never have called her harlot, and said nothing of the boy, when it was his own son. And what did you do, you and Master Matthew, after Master Roger rode away with Miss Sally?"

"Why? we went home. What should we do? But we did sleep that night in the barn, for Matthew would not go home, for fear of more whipping from his Pa. And I wished to hide from you, that I'd been whipped, and so we slept in the barn."

"You were always to talk, Elias, after a whipping. You would lie in your brother John his arms, and beg that he should rub your arse with his hands, and kiss it. And you did like to show your arse to my boy Thomas, and ask: does not my white arse make a better show, than your black one?"

"So it was that night. Matthew rub and slap my arse, to ease me, and I did so for him. We lay in each others arms, in the straw, for it were cold. But our arses were so hot, that we could not bear to wear our shirts. And I said I had felt great lechery in watching Miss Sally, her arse whipped, and my cock rose as I spoke of it. And we were tight held together in the straw, and my cock pushed between his legs, and we did wrastle together and my seed spilled between his legs. And I said to him I would take his cock in my mouth to make him shoot his seed. We had never heard of that trick in our lives, to take a cock in the mouth, but his Pa had accused Sally of it, and that gave me lechery to make a cock shoot seed in my mouth."

"He said he felt not so much lechery as I, for his cock was not yet risen. But he wished it to rise, for he lust to talk of lechery. He said: 'And you can by talking, make my cock rise, Cousin, you may do with it what your will is, to take it in your mouth.' And so I spoke of the kinds of lechery that his father has accused us, which we had no idea of before, but he said he felt no lechery to hear of them. I asked if he felt no lechery from having his sore arse slap, for when he did rub my arse hard and slap it, to ease the pain, that did make my cock to rise. He said he felt lechery in it, but I should strike harder. So I did spank his arse with my hand, hard as I could, as you would spank a bantling boy too small for the whip, and then he said he wished me to whip his arse, for he was no bantling boy to be so spanked with a hand. I said I would do it in the morning, for it be too dark then to look for the whip, and we could strike no light in the barn."

"The whip for slave arses did hang behind the door, as you know better than most, Master 'Lias. Did not you have the whipping of Gilly and my boy Thomas to do yourself at that time?"

"And you had still the whipping of me, Cesar, and you did use to make me fetch the whip for own whippings, so I knew well enough where it did hang. But our arses were full sore from his pa, and so I thought him mad to want more whipping. I did pretend I knew not where the whip it be, and I bid him wait for morning, and did hope he would forget his fancy to be whipped. But then he did say as how he felt great lechery when he was whipped of his pa, for that his pa had whipped him and accused him of every trick of lechery with Sally, tricks we had not heard of. And he told me that while he was whipped of his pa, his cock had risen hard, and he had spilled his seed into the rotten stump he was bent over. And so he had most lechery to be whipped again to spill his seed. And when he spoke to me of spilling his seed into the hole in the stump, his cock at last rose hard.

"Now he had said that when his cock should rise, I would have my will, which was to take it in my mouth. But he would not do his promise, for then he said he must first have the lechery of being whipped, and then I should have mine with my mouth. And despite it was powerful cold, he did go about the barn stark naked, a-feeling for a horsewhip with his hands, and he bother the horses. So I bid him to look behind the door, where the whip was."

"It was full dark, and he could not find it. It was cold, and we were shivering. So I went to the door and put my hand on it in the dark, and called him over to the block."

"Indeed well. And most of of all that bit of earth that I did look down upon, when I was bent over it - I knew every crack in that hand's breadth of earth. But when I came to whip Matthew, I had in mind the times that I did whip Thomas and Gilly, not my own whippings. For so I did contrive to hit Matthew his arse, for all that I could see nothing in the dark, by thinking on the whippings I gave Thomas."

"Did you whip hard? For Thomas said to me he did not care a fig about your whippings."

"And you, Master Elias? You used to say a whipping was nothing to you. Was that true?"

"But I didn't tell a lie to get out of a harder whipping! What Thomas did was not honorable!"

"We be slaves, sir. But I say to Thomas: 'and you be wicked, and Master Elias whip you for it, do you get a second whipping from me.' And so he got a real whipping from me."

"Aye Cesar. And it was no easy thing, to be given the whipping of Thomas to do, and then you must interfere."

"Your whipping was too light, Master Elias, I did but put some sting in it. Did you whip Matthew so light, and short, as you did Thomas?"

"Matthew bid me lay on well, for he said it did not hurt, but gave him pleasure and lechery, to be whipped while thinking of lechery. And he would by no ways let me stop, until at last he did call out the name of Miss Sally. And then he said his seed had come out of him, and so I could not take it with my mouth. He said it was the greatest pleasure in the world, being whipped in lechery."

"I did. I felt some lechery in it, but I could not bear it, although I was ashamed to bear less whipping than he. So I say my cock be a game cock, willing to fight without a spur, and I took more lechery in whipping him, than to be whipped."

"He said that were well, for that I should whip him as often as I would, and take my pleasure and lechery in whipping his arse, as he took his to be whipped. But he wished best to swive a slave girl, while he was whipped. And I say I did wish to have a slave girl, to take my cock in her mouth, while I be at whipping."

"He did not count slaves in that. He asked me if our Gilly would be willing. He told me I might let her off from a whipping, if she would swive with us. And I said there was no need to let her off a whipping, to make her swive, for she was most willing and wanting to swive with me without that, and I supposed she would swive with him too, for my sake. But, Cesar, I told him we could not do it with Gilly, for that you would surely come to know of it. And he called me fool and coward to be afraid of a slave. So I said, why must it be a slave at my place, what of some girl of his own place? But Matthew he was more afraid of his pa, than ever I was of you, and so I called him coward, back to his face again. And truth was we were both at coward of taking a slave in our own places. But then I say I know of a girl, for Thomas had done tell me about this girl - she was at Col. Waters his place, a field girl, who wished to spread her legs for white boys, if we would bring a hen, or a mess of fish. And so we agreed it - that we would swive with her, and that while he was in her swiving, at pumping into her like he did pump into the stump of rotten wood, I would be at whipping his arse."

"He is your slave, Master 'Lias. Would you be at whipping him, if he be wicked? For all he be a grown man?"

"Well, I shall whip my son, be he boy or man. He had no call to put temptation in the way of Talitha."

"Talitha? It were not Talitha. It were Hainey. I done told you it were a field slave."

"Hainey? Mandingo Hainey? Her with the heathen scars on her from Africa? You swive with her?"

"And did Matthew have lechery for Hainey, black and scarred and ugly she is, when he wanted pretty Sally Waters?"

"He did not. For when we came to meet her at the appointed place, that were at Col. Waters his place, at sunset, in the woods behind the slave cabins, she met us there and told us that Miss Sally was took sick, bad sick, with a cold, and then Matthew, his lechery went out of him complete. I still had much lechery to whip him. And he say he wished to be whipped as we had agreed, not for lechery but for his sin, for that it was his fault, that Sally was so long naked at White Oak Creek, and so had taken the cold. And he say to Hainey she should pass word to Talitha, for you know that Talitha was the lady-maid to Miss Sally at that time, that we were powerful sorry, and we did pray she be in health. That girl Hainey she be so at feared, she was most comical, when she see I have a whip, for she think we be at come to whip her, but when she know it were Matthew his arse to be whip, and not her own arse, she had lechery to watch it done. And then he bare his breech for the whip."

"I did at that time strip myself stark naked, and I bid Hainey be so too, for I had wish to swive with her, as I whipped Matthew. And I did bid Matthew to be naked too, for I wished him to swive with Hainey along side of me. But he say he have no taste for swiving, and did only pull down his breeches for the whip and would not be naked. He bid me to whip him on his bare arse. And his arse was still bad marked from the whipping from his pa, so I ask Hainey to look at my arse, and I says to her : 'look ye at my arse, and at Master Matthew his arse. Be mine marked more, or be his more?' and Hainey say my arse be terrible marked, more so than Master Matthew, and my cock rose at that. And I commence to whip Matthew his arse, to make it a color of purple where it was black and blue, and I had great lechery in the sight of it. My cock was tight hard, but Matthew his cock did not rise. And Matthew, he did weep, and cry, as a spaniel when it is whip. He wept for his sin."

"No, Master Elias, I did not hear of this here meeting. But when you did watch your brother John be whip, and he cry, then would you cry, as you never would cry for your own whipping. And whenever it happened that he was whipped, then when his whipping be done, you two would go off together a ways into the woods - I'm old, Master 'Lias, but not deaf. I know that whatever strokes John had been beat in his whipping, he would lay that same count on your arse."

"And did you know Cesar, that at night after a whipping, when he was whipped and sore, he would let me sleep in his bed, in his arms, as he would not let me do at other times? And that since I had taken the same count as he, he did used to soothe and kiss my arse, and he wept for my hurt from his hands. For the great love he had for me, I did not care of the pain."

"No. But once when Pa whip him, I did hear him, in the night, weeping. Then did I go into his bed, and say: I cannot bear it that you should weep. And I would not be comforted, until he say he would whip me the same as he be whip. He called me a most loving brother, and he left off weeping, and we did sneak out of the house, and into the woods by moonlight, and cut a pohiccory stick. And I felt great love and gratitude for my brother that he did beat me that night. I still have that stick."

"When I whip you, Elias, your brother John cried to see you beat, but he did never bare his breech to keep you company."

"He did, Cesar. He bare his breech and gave me full leave to beat him with the 'hiccory. He begged me to. When I had a whipping of you, he rubbed my arse, and slapped me to ease the pain, and kissed my arse, and wept - he said that seeing such stripes caused him such misery, that he wished to share my pain, as I did his. But I knew I could bear whipping better than he."

"And yet you took a beating, when you saw your cousin Matthew cry? I had not thought you had such love for your cousin, Master 'Lias, as you did for your brother John."

"I did not. It were only lechery, not love, with Matthew. I did remember how we had been together in the barn, and spilled seed between our legs while we hug and kiss together. And so, when I had whip him sore for his sin with Sally Waters, I did say, 'Cousin Matthew, I am at fault as much as you, for that Sally she has caught a cold.' And so I bent over and he whip hard, as I could not bear, and yet I had a lust to bear all I could, and so I had a pleasure in it, the first lechery I ever had from being whip. But by and by I think that my arse must be solid red, and I bid him stop, and I felt satisfaction to have born it. But he said it were not enough, and we both must be whip more. We were drunk with whipping, and mad with it, like men drunk in a tavern, who fight and feel no pain.

"I ask him: 'do you feel no pleasure, Cousin, from being whip? For at the stump at White Oak Creek, you did spill your seed from being whip.' And he said no, that he had no lechery, and for proof, his cock did not rise. My cock was hard risen. And I felt shame that he felt his fault to Miss Sally, while I had lechery and no thought for Sally being sick. So I says: 'I think we were at fault, for truly we did play at whoring, as your Pa said. Therefore, Cousin Matthew, do you whip me well, as you do judge my fault. And I will not bid you stop, but bear my punishment as you decide it.' And he said: 'Cousin Elias, I am very glad. And you shall whip me as you judge my fault, and I will bear it - whatever it be.'

"And he commenced to whip me, and I did think on my fault, for his whipping hurt exceedingly on my arse. Truly I thought I was at fault, for that, when we strip naked to swim, I knew that Sally would look on, and so I turned about to show her my privates, that they were up. And she did look on, as I had guessed, but she rather looked on Matthew his arse, than at my cock risen to salute her. I do think she knew we peeked at her bare too, for I do think she dropped her clothes a purpose. And so I was thinking as I was whip by Matthew. Then I did think of Matthew and Sally hugging and kissing as we lay naked on the muddy bank, and I did think that perhaps they had been at swiving, as his pa had said And then I had such lechery - I had lust to take my cock in my hand, to spill my seed, and it were so strong that my hand did seem to pull of itself. And then the lash did not seem pain to me, but only drove my lust the hotter. And Matthew he could see how it was with me, and he stopped to whip me.

"And he ask: 'What do you think on, Cousin Elias, that you feel such lust? Will you not think of our fault?' I did not want to say I thought of Sally, of him swiving with her, for I knew Matthew did love her, and would not wish to have it spoken of. And so I say I look on Hainey and she be naked, and so I think of sport with her. Matthew says: 'I would not feel lechery, if she kissed me on every part of my body.' I says: 'If she but took your cock in her mouth, you would spend your seed, Cousin Matthew.' And so Matthew signed to her that she should take his cock in her mouth, for he wished to prove his cock would not rise. And she knew some trick of it, for his cock did rise depite of him. Then he pushed her so she fell and cut her crown, and whle she was mazed he pushed his cock into her privaties, and quickly spent his seed in her. But then he was deep ashamed - his lust had made him do it.

"I says I would have sport with her too. I says to her: 'Hainey, I think you must have more skill in lechery than we, for we boys be but new pupils at this sport. You will be our schoolmaster, and have the 'hiccory stick.' And so she did, for we did kiss, and then she did kiss the stripes on my arse, which is my special fancy, and then I thrust my cock inside of her. And then she pulled away, and turned in my arms, and laughed, and I could not hold her, though lust did make me mad. Then she bid me whip her arse for her pleasure, and I do bid her run, and I chase her round the mullaberry tree, whipping her arse. But she did try a trick, and got the whip from me. I did not run from her, but turned on her, and so got the whip across my cock, so hard it spilled blood. And then I got the whip and held her down and whipped her sore, saying: do you want the whip or my cock? And she say she want my cock, but from behind, as rams do rutt with ewes. And so we did, though it was not quick, but after time of working I spent my seed, and I thought it good sport."

"He did look away. For once I spent my seed I did kiss her, and she did lick my privities with her tongue, cleaning the blood, and we did play a game of little bites, till I did threat to lash her, for biting of my ball. And she say I must do it then, for that I had bit her privities too hard, and she would have revenge and bite my ball, and did not care if she be lashed for it. And I pulled back my foreskin and bid her bite the tip of my cock if she would bite, but I say she must not bite my ball again, or I would beat her arse with a stick. And she say she do like the stick I beat her arse with, for she did mean my cock, and so she would bite my ball again to earn such another beating with that stick of mine.

"And then Matthew, who stood looking away from our sport, did say that when we should finish, he had still to be whipped. And I did for his more shame make him wear the dress, that was Hainey her slave dress, and I put a garland on his head like a boy who is shamed in school. Then I say he should have his dress lifted, and be whip as a girl is whip, for such a naughty girl as he was, was too much a baby to be lashed like a boy. And he say I might whip him as I wished. And I say 'You be grim of face, Cousin Matthew, but I shall see you dance and sing.' And I did tie up his dress, so that his arse be bare, and bid him hold the branch of a tree, so that his toes only did touch the ground, and I bid Hainey to whip him with the pohiccory stick, as girls are made to do the whipping of other girls in school. And so he danced, for Hainey she struck him terrible hard, as did make him jump. But he did not cry, and so I thought I had not made him sing. And when I looked in his face he did smile to be whipped, and he soon began to laugh, so much did he not care of that whipping.

"I bid Hainey to leave off beating him, and I ask: 'Do you now feel pleasure, Cousin Matthew? For your cock is not risen.' And he say he feels no lechery, and he knew not why, but he felt no more pain in his arse, than what a man might feel from a hard day of riding his horse. And he was very jolly, and said he wished to eat some meat, for that being whip was good exercise, and give him a good appetite. I had a jug of whiskey, for to give to Hainey for her whoring, and he drank of it, and so commenced to sing, as I had said I would make him do. The whiskey made him jolly and he said that Sally had but a cold, and would soon be well, and that he would ask his father to speak with Col. Waters, for their marriage. And I say that Col. Waters he be a rich man, but that my cousin Matthew he be good enough for Sally, and I did think Col. Waters would agree.

"And then he did dance in truth, and sing, and Hainey danced, and whipped him with the pohiccory. And we did play a game of whipping and drinking, that each must drink and sing and dance, and not loose time. And Hainey lost, for the skipped time from being beat, and Matthew say she must for penalty drain the jug, and then to dance a jig.

"Then we do all kiss and lay together, and Hainey do take a cock in each hand, and I ask Matthew if he do love Sally Waters, and he says that he must have her. For that when Sally did bend over the stump to be whip, she had shown us her female privities, which were the first he ever had seen in his life, of a white girl, and so he could think of nothing else but of having her. And I asks, 'Do you think of having sport with her?' And he said he did think at night of nothing, but of pushing his cock in her. He say that when he was whip by his pa by the creek, the stump was still warm from Sally her body, and as he were whipped, he did think of her, how she did writhe and twist from the whipping, and she be naked before us. And his cock had risen hard, and from his movings and twistings as his pa whip him, he had worked his cock and pushed a groove into the rotten stump. And as he worked his cock in the stump, in the hole or groove, he did think to himself that it were the hole of Sally her privates, and he did pretend to cry in pain, what were really his pleasure, for he did spill his seed into the stump, while his pa whip him. And now he would have no other kind of lechery, but to be whip while he did think of his cock in Sally Waters.

"But he ask if I did think Sally love him, for his lust had made him jealous, and he had fear that she did like me, more than him. And I tell him that when we strip naked to swim, I did turn back to see if she looked at us, for that I wish to show her my privities. And she did look at his bare arse, and she had no lust to look at me, even my cock. And I said: 'When next we a-fishing go, she will be wanting to swim bare with us - and if you are not able to have her to swive with you then, Cousin, I am much mistook. For I think girls do more strongly burn with lust, than we, and Sally she burns more with lust for you, even than you for her. Get a child on her, then you may marry her for certain'."

Old Cesar folded another finger. He asked: "Did Master Matthew swive with Miss Sally afore she died?"

"He say he would on no account swive with her until they be married. And I say even if it be so that Col. Waters agree, very like he say that she is too young, so they should not come to marry for some years. And I say it be best to get a child on her, and not have to wait so long. And Matthew he say that sport with Sally should be his greatest pleasure, but yet he had pleasure in being whip, and so he would be satisfied with that until they be married. And I say I would whip him if he will, for that I had pleasure in looking at his white arse, turn red as it were whipped. And we agreed to meet the very next day, at sunset, for another whipping, and that I should bring another jug of whiskey, for that we had drunk the first one, that was to have paid Hainey. Matthew came home with me again, and we slept in the barn. And I did think much of my swiving with Hainey, for that were the first time I had my cock into any woman her privates."

"I did confess to you I did, Cesar, but that were a lie for I had not in truth put my cock in her.   And it were not so, what I did confess, that I had got her to swive with me, by letting her off from a whipping. She came naked to me, and open my breeches, and took my cock in her hand.   But when I saw her privates, that they were black, I had fear to put my cock in them. I did start to bring my seed out with my hand, but she did take my cock in her hand, and so brought out my seed.    So we did it--her hand and my privities only. But when you asked me, Cesar, I were ashamed, and I did say it were a proper swive, with my cock inside of her."

"And did I say then, that you deserve to be proper whipped?"

"You whip me with the bullwip, Cesar.   I do remember. It was my first bull-whipping."

"You was the master, at that time, Master 'Lias. You had no need to be whip by me, by bull-whip or any way, save you allow it."

"And when did you ever say I earn to be whip, that I did not bend over the block, Cesar?   And so I feared to swive with Gilly, though she were eager and willing."

"Did you still fear her, that she was black in her privities?"

"No, I had the more lust for them, being black. And so had she for mine, being white. For you know she is lazy, and I had often to whip her for failing of her work, and before a whipping she did lust for me look at her privities, and put my fingers in them. And she show me how when she be bent over the block for a whipping, I had but to stand with my breeches open and my cock hard, and push into her, like a boar into a sow. But I would not, for I did fear you and your bullwhip. And so I whipped her as I had ought to do, and did never let her off a whipping for a swive, and did never sport with my cock inside of her, only my fingers. The very next day after I had sport with Hainey, Gilly was idle in her work once again, and I did call her to the barn. But there was Matthew with me this time, and he say we should let her off if she will swive with us - and Gilly say she be willing to swive with Matthew but she did hate me. And I say we must not do it, for surely Cesar would hear of it. Matthew ask if Pa had left Cesar to be master of plantation, or John - he say black Cesar was the master, and John and me were his white slaves."

"You tell him, Elias, that younger though you was, your Pa left you the master, and not your brother John?"

"I tell him, Cesar, but I could not make him understand how it was with us. He were the more amazed that I should fear you, when he know that I was left master. I tell him - 'when my Pa comes home, from the Bermudoes, should I say to him, I did this fornication, I did that one, and Cesar judged I should be whipped for them, but I had not courage to bear my whipping'?"

"You were master, Master Elias. A master may do any fornication, and be not whipped for it."

"So Matthew says to me. But I says, 'I will not tell Pa I was coward.' He says I be more a coward to be ruled by Cesar, than to whip you and make myself the master."

"Master Elias, you would not do evil with Gilly, though you might have done, for you was master. I think for all your talk of fearing me, you do rather fear the Lord."

"But I did evil with Hainey, Cesar, because I thought you could not find out. What you did not know, you could not whip me for, Cesar, and there's an end on it. I say to Matthew, 'Cousin, you may not swive with my slave Gilly,' and after that he were very cool with me, and walk away."

"So you did not meet with him, as you had planned, that evening?"

"I do go to the place. I go to Col. Waters his place early, and I bring a great jug of whiskey, for I care not if Matthew come; I was there to swive with Hainey. I be at thinking of her and the game we play with bites. And so I spend an hour thinking of her - and how she do laugh, and how I do catch her a stripe unawares, and how she yelp like a dog, but then she do laugh at the stripe. And I think the white of her eyes did shine in her black face, for her eyes danced in thinking how to catch me back. And that she have such pleasure to catch me a stroke of the whip, or to bite me by a trick, that she do laugh as I run after her with my whip to pay her back. And she did most surely fascinate me, when she danced, jumping high for that I did beat her arse. I be most ready for more sport with her. And at sunset a slave comes out to the meeting place, what were in among some cypress trees, but it were not Hainey, but Talitha. And I says, 'where be Hainey?' And she say she do come in stead of Hainey, for she be prettier, for she has no scars. And Talitha do bid me see her pretty dress, that she had of Miss Sally, and that she be a lady-maid, and Hainey be only a field negroe. And I bid her go away, and send Hainey to me."

"Did she go? For that Talitha she be powerful fond of her own way."

"Talitha would not go: she take off her dress and be stark naked.   And she say that all what Hainey would do for me, she would do better.   She say: 'Do you chase me with the whip, and ride me like a mare, for I be much prettier than Hainey.'    For she hear from Hainey how we chase around the mullaberry tree, for me to lash Hainey her arse. And she say 'Oh Master Elias, Hainey she say: when you say stick, you mean your cock.   Do you now beat me with that stick of yours!'    And I be very angry and say: 'And you want to be whip, run.' She run.   But I do quickly catch her ankle, and grab her, and hold her so I could whip her arse, and I do whip as hard as ever I could, and she do scream.   And I think that they do hear her at the slave cabins, but I do not care, for I was in rage.   And I calls her bitch and she-ass, and whore, and I say that no man would ever have lust for her, what knew what it was to swive with Hainey.    And she do weep and yell at the hard whipping I give her - she say I be terrible cruel to whip her so; for she did expect no more than a light whipping for lechery as I did with Hainey. She say she had no pleasure in such whip play as I gave her.

"And I say: 'You be a dunce at lechery, then, for that Hainey I whipped hard, and she had pleasure in it: for she is so strong of lechery. You be a she-ass.'    And I say she did earn be whip with the pohiccory stick, if she would stand.   And she do - she obey me and takes her beating, for to prove she is a lecher as good as Hainey.   And she did make no sound, and did stand there to be beat, as if she did not care to be beat so sore.    I never saw such a thing in my life."

"I have seen it, for so would you do, Master Elias.    When you was a bare babe knee high to a mule, you would not allow that I should spank you with my hand, but must have the whip, as Thomas had, and your elder brother, for you said you were better at taking the whip, than they were. And so you were. And you did never make a sound, and you did like to show Thomas your red arse, for his black arse did not show the whip."

"Thomas he see my arse and say: 'That were a sore whipping, and did you cry?' and I say: 'Oh, I do not care if I be whip.'   He were amazed."

"For all you say you give not a fig for a whipping, you be the most obedient child, Master 'Lias. When you supposed to be at hoeing the corn, you two, I comes back and there be master 'Lias with his hoe, and Thomas be a-swimming in the creek.    And I whip him sore, and he cry. But then he go right away to steal of some bacon, and Master 'Lias he do finish to hoe the corn and start in on the Indian taters without he be asked. And Thomas he do piss his bed, and he be whip, and he cry, but he could not recollect to piss before he go to bed! Master 'Lias piss the bed once, and be whip, and that little boy when he was whip he say: 'I care not a fig for a whipping.' But that little boy he never forget to piss afore bed again!"

"Cesar, when Thomas wanted to go to steal, and I would not go, he asks if I be a-feared, and I say I ain't, only that I do not like to steal.   But in truth I do fear; I was at feared of you most dreadful. Your Thomas he has no fear of you, for all your whipping. He would go to steal some bacon, and I would hang back and hoe the corn.    I think he do steal for that he love the danger.   He stole for pleasure, and gave me the bacon. But when he be caught and whip, he cry a long time. And I do not think he fained it. I think he could not bear to be whip so well as me."

Cesar reached for his pipe, but did not light it. Brother John knew the value of Cesar, no question, but his brother never thought of little comforts for his slaves.   Elias handed over his pouch.   Cesar filled his pipe, and handed back the pouch. Elias pretended not to see it, held out to him in the skinny black hand. Then there was the business of flint and tinder, for Cesar kept no fire burning.

Elias continued: "I were amazed Talitha did stand so quiet to be whip, and I ask her if she do feel pain. And she say: "And it be for lechery to be whip, Master, I will bear it.    I be a whore. I be she-ass.' She say Col. Waters do only take his pleasure, when he swive with her. She said she did not care for Col Waters.   She say: 'If I be not as good as Hainey, I deserve to be whip. Did you piss on Hainey? Piss on me, too! I will drink your piss!'    And she open her mouth for it."

Cesar made a face at that. Elias began to feel like a grown man and a master, and a bit less like a little boy confessing his sins. He should bring another chair. It were only three miles to his brother's plantation, and Elias thought he should like to ride over some times and visit with the old man. Cesar had been the family slave since when Pa come down from Virginia with his brother Roger, and had bought all this land of the Proprietor.   With only one slave - the lad Cesar - the two young orphan boys had cut these plantations out of the wilderness. He remembered what Pa had said, that Roger and Cesar had been young devils together, and he'd worn out his whipping arm on both of them. It was hard to imagine Pa whipping Cesar.

Cesar said: "Did you swive with Talitha, Master Elias?"

It was like being on the rack, standing here, his legs aching, being questioned by this relentless old man.   Elias had almost had the courage to sit on the ground, but now it was gone like morning mist. He felt like a boy again. He tried to imagine Cesar being called to account, being whipped by Pa, but he couldn't. When Ma died, Pa had sank into grief, Uncle Roger took to drinking, and Cesar - Cesar had tied knots in the whips, hectored Pa and Uncle Roger, driven himself day and night, and whipped everyone else, including John and Elias and Matthew, as well as the slaves, to make them work the fields, until the debts were clear and the plantation began to make money. Elias remembered no other life; from his earliest memory. Cesar had always been stern father and driving overseer to him. Pa had whipped him lightly, or more often forgave him altogether, but Pa spent a lot of time in town, or away at sea. And when Pa was gone it was Cesar who had the whipping of the boys, and Cesar had never once in his life forgiven a boy a whipping. Roger would not be driven by a slave, and so he had divided off his own plantation. Without Cesar, his crops failed and he was now in debt. Cesar had made John and Elias into rich men.

Elias said: "I could not swive with Talitha at that time, for my cock would not rise. But I did admire how she bore the whip. She did lust to be called whore and she-ass, and wicked. But she had not the sport of whipping me back as Hainey had."

"Did she whip you?"

"No. I give her the big jug of whiskey and say it be for her, and that I come another time to swive with Hainey. And I be about to go when Matthew come. It were plain to see he had been weeping, and he was drunk.     He see my cock, for my breeches were open, and he think my cock were down for that I had just spent my seed. He say I go about to foutter a slave the right way.    He say he do the same by and by.    He open his breeches, and grab Talitha by the hair, and pull her mouth to his cock. Then he say he ready to lick my cock, as he had promised; he step out of his breeches.    I say he must take off his shirt, and be stark naked, to be whip.    But would not he take off his shirt, for that he say it be cold. But it were not cold, and I do strip naked to show him.   Talitha looks at our arses, which were well marked with whipping. She say, she can lick my cock, better than Matthew can.    She bid me to bite on her privities, for she say I would have more pleasure in that, than to lick Matthew his cock."

"Did you bite her?"

"No.   But it did make me think of Hainey, and the game we play of bites. For when I bite her hard, Hainey do have rage, to hurt me, and so I must defend me, with the whip, but she care not, and so bites and scratches me hard, and whips me when she can.   And so it were sport to play with Hainey, with the whip, while it was no sport to whip Talitha. It was a game with Hainey. For though I felt no pleasure to be whip, yet I had pleasure in the sport of it, and did not mind the pain.    For that Hainiey did fight me, I had the more pleasure to whip her. And she had such lust to whip me, that I did lust to sport with her. And so from thinking of Hainey, my cock rose up at last, and I did allow Talitha to lick me.    And she do commence to lick my balls, and then nibble hard on the tip of my cock, and then she stop. And I be hot with lust to spend my seed in her mouth, but she she would not commence to lick until I whip her, reaching her arse with the tip of the whip as she do have my cock in her mouth. And then she stop again until I whip her, and so she keep stopping, and I do have to keep whipping her, for I do burn most terrible with lust when she stop. And so I go to pull my cock from her mouth, but she do bite and will not let go, and then I spend my seed in her mouth, and I do scream for my lechery."

"Did you like your sport with Talitha better than with Hainey?"

"The end were better, but I did like the sporting better with Hainey, for Hainey was a fighting she-cat; and she-cats do make the lust of the tom-cats, with their scratches. Talitha ask me if the stripes on my arse had been of Matthew, or if I had been at whipped of my pa.   And I say some were of Hainey, for we did play together with the whip, in our sport of lechery. Talitha say she would never whip a white boy.   So I ask if she would whip Matthew, for Matthew do most admire to be whip, but Matthew he say he want rather whip by me while he have his cock in Talitha.     His cock was not risen, so I hand him the whip, and take his cock in my mouth."

"Why hand him the whip?"

"My hands were at grabbing his arse.    I nibble on his cock, and push back his foreskin with my tongue, as Talitha had done to me. His cock rose up. But when I stopped to lick him, to make his lust burn hotter, he pull his cock out, and I could not hold him.    He got down to be at swiving with Talitha, and bid me whip his arse, but I say he must have his shirt off.    When at last he took his shirt off, I see why he wished to keep it on: he had bloody stripes on his back from a bullwhip.   I ask if his Pa whipped him. He say: 'He smell the whiskey on my breath, Cousin Elias.   This be a whipping for a slave, and I be his son!   A man shouldn't give his son a bull-whipping. I hate my Pa.'    I ask him if he do in truth want more whipping on his arse, with his back bloody as it was, and he say: 'make my arse bleed too!'     He say whoring, drinking, dancing, swearing, he mean to do them all.   He swear: 'By God's balls!' and he ask: do I know an oath worse than that?   For he would swear worse, if he could. He do like to say 'foutter' and not 'swive' for that it be a worse word, and saying 'foutter' would earn more stripes of his Pa."

Cesar said: "Master Elias!"   He didn't need to say anything else.   Elias dropped--the knees of his dove-grey tailored trousers on the filthy ground.   One more folded finger and Elias would bare his breech.   Or rather, the boy Elias would have.   Bare his breech, ask to be whip, and take his whipping without a sound.   And then Cesar would kiss his brow.   To the boy Elias, that had been the test. If he endured his whipping, without complaint, Cesar would know he was sorry, and so kiss him in forgiveness.    But Elias was the master now. He could not ask for a whipping any more. He had no way to earn forgiveness.

"I ... I did not help him to blashpheme, Cesar.   I never swore By Gods Balls or any oath. I ... Anyway, Pa would betimes swear by God his balls.   And dancing and drinking be no sins, for I be not Methody.   You be not Methody neither, Cesar. Drinking is no sin. And I ...    Talitha she be willing...."

"What did you do with her, Master Elias?"

Elias did not want to answer any more.    He wanted to say: "Slave - I don't have to answer to you!"    He thought of Pa, coming home.   But Pa was at the bottom of the sea, three years gone.   He had to be, for all the judge do say he were counted still alive till seven years pass.    Elias would never have to answer to his Pa.    He did not have to answer to Cesar. He did not have to answer to anyone, ever again. He was a master.

"What did you do, Master Elias?"

"I ... uh, I whip Matthew his arse.   He bid Talitha spread her knees, and bid me whip him as he pushed his cock in her, and by and by he call out Sally, and he be done.   Then he say it were my turn to be whip while I fouter the slave, but I would not.    He said we should dance and sing to the whip,as we had with Hainey, but I bid him dance with Talitha by his lonesome.   I take my shirt and breeches, and come home.   That were the time you did think Thomas had stolen the arse whip."

"And you let Thomas be whip for that, Master Elias, when it were you, had taken the whip?" Cesar folded another finger.

IV. stole a pig and away he run

Elias was still on his knees. His fingers itched to undo his belt.    Bare his breech; take his whipping. Then the questioning would stop.   They could do it in the slave cabin.   No one would ever know.

"It were in this fashion, Cesar.    Matthew did not bring me the whip as he had promised.    So early morn I wake Thomas and say I would do his chores, and he must run to Col. Waters, his place, and get the whip, if he could find it, and bring it back before you missed it.    And I tell Thomas to see Hainey and appoint a meeting, at sunset.   And I tell him he might go with me, for the pleasure we would have of dancing and singing with Hainey and Talitha, and I would see him swive that very day. But you were up that morning before your time, and when Thomas come back from Col. Waters, you see him. You see the whip in his hand, and he would give you no reason."

"You did sometimes to confess, Master Elias, before you let Thomas be whip for your own fault."

"I...   Do you not remember how it was? When you called him to the block, he gave me a sign, that he beg me not to speak."

"He wished you to be silent, so that you would take him to swive with Hainey, as you had said?"

"He was not so strong to go swiving, as that. At first he say he would not go, but I press him, and then he say he do want to kiss, but no more. I tell him he would swive like any man, when he should come to it, for that his cock would rise, and then he would go to it, for his lechery should make him.    But he do swear his cock would not rise."

"And did my son his cock rise? Like any man?"   Elias saw something he had only rarely seen.   Cesar smiled.

"We did not come to that swiving.    When he could be secret with me, after his whipping, he tells me his news: that Miss Sally had been missed from her bed.    Thomas said it must be that Matthew had sent word to her, and she had slipped her bed to swive with him in the night.     I decide to go to Uncle Roger, his plantation, for to see if Matthew be there, and I take Thomas with me.    We came first to White Oak Creek, and when we strip to swim across, Thomas see my arse.   And he say: 'How came your arse to be so whip, Master 'Lias? I did think you use the whip on Hainey, for your pleasure' How came you to be whip?'"

"I say: 'There can be lechery in being whip, Thomas.' He say he know, for Gilly she say, that from her lust she did have lechery even to be whip by me, and so slacked her work a-purpose. But he did not know a man could feel so. For though he lusted to kiss Gilly, he felt no lust to be whip of her.   He ask me: 'How could you feel pleasure to be whip by Hainey, Master? For you be a master, and Hainey, she be only a field negroe, and powerful ugly.'    I say I have most pleasure to whip, but that Master Matthew he have more pleasure to be whip. Thomas say he never think a man could take a pleasure to be whip.

"We had by this time swum the creek. I point out him the stump on the south side, and tell him that my Uncle Roger whip us all three on that stump, for whoring. And I say how Matthew had spilled his seed in a hole in the stump. And Thomas he say 'why you not show me the hole?' And then Thomas he disobey me, and he swim back across the water what we just cross, for to see this hole in the stump. And he fit his cock into the hole. He try to spill his seed, but he could not. I shout across he be whip, for he disobey me, and he shout he glad, for his seed would not come, and he want to try it being whip, as Matthew was.   But I would not swim across to whip him on the stump. I shout I be going to my Uncle Roger, and he must come, unless he has lust to try a bull-whipping.    He swim across to me, and I say I go to beat him him with a pohiccory, for disobedience.   He grin and ask if I have lechery to do it.   And then he commence to run naked.

"I was not willing to run naked, and so I dressed. And then I have to bear his clothes. And so he has much start of me, and by and by he comes to the ferry road, and stops to wait for me. When I come up to him, he says he has won the race, but I say it were no race, and am go to beat him anyways. And so I make him carry his clothes, and beat him as we walk along the road. But he take no note of it, and by and by I stop. He lifts his clothes, that he carried in front of him, and shows me his cock is not risen. He says: 'I think Hainey whip you last night, harder than you whip me, Master."

"I say he should have hard whipping and lechery that night with Hainey and Talitha, allowing we had by then found Sally safe and well. I tell him that when he comes to kiss Hainey, that night, his cock would rise. 'And we will do with you what we will, Thomas. Mayhap Hainey will whip you, and force you to suckle on my cock! Or mayhap Hainey will suckle your cock, or bid you whip her!' And I tell him of the game of bites, and how I bit her as I suckled on her teats. And I shows him the teeth marks on my own paps. And I say I would make him bite Hainey, her privities. And then Thomas shows me that his cock was hard risen from my talk. He say: 'Now I wish we were at that stump. I could spill my seed now.' I tell him he does not need the stump, for a man could spill his seed with his hand. But he does not take his cock in his hand."

"Did you feel lechery and pleasure, Master Elias, in whipping my son?"

"No, Sir! I thought - I thought it would be finer than going fishing, to sneak off with him, to meet with Hainey by moonlight. I thought he would have more sport, than I did, to play with the whip. For when we went together to steal some sausage, or any thing, Thomas did always to make more sport of it, for he laughed at the danger of a whipping. He was the officer in our campaigns, and I was the soldier, when we went stealing. His eyes did blaze for stealing, like Hainey her eyes for running from the whip. So I did think sporting with Hainey, with Thomas, would be very fine, and better than with Matthew. I thought of us two, Thomas and Elias, swiving all the willing slave girls of the county. I ask him, since his cock was up, if he still thought his cock would not rise when he kissed Hainey. 'Will you not swive with her, Thomas?'. He say he would rather be kissed by Gilly with his cock down, than do all the kinds of sport with Hainey and Talitha that I done talk of, with his cock up. I say we would sport with Gilly, by and by, but he should sport tonight with Talitha and Hainey, so that when he comes to Gilly, he should know what to do. He say he think his Pa do bull-whip him for swiving with Gilly. I say I been bull-whip for swiving with Gilly, and I didn't even do it, and he should be a man, and do the swiving and take the bull-whipping. And then I do commence to whip his arse with the pohiccory."

"Did he ask you?"

"No Sir! He did not, excepting that by and by he said he wished to be whipped at the stump, trying his cock in the hole.   But as I whip him on the road, he would not take his cock in his hand, though it was risen hard.   He talk of Gilly, that she were cruel and would not kiss him.   I say he will go with me, and we both will swive with her.   He said: 'She will never have me.' And all this time I be a-beating him, but he don't pay it mind. I say: 'Will you go with me, Thomas?   Will you ask Gilly for a kiss?   Will you ask her to suckle your cock?   Will you whip her for your pleasure?   Or will you just stand there?   And watch me kiss her?   And swive with her? And bite her teats? And flog her arse? Speak, Thomas; be a man and act! Take your cock in your hand'. And all this while I be at beating him."

"Did he ask you to stop?"

"We hear a shout, and hooves, and it were Matthew.   I left off beating. Matthew was naked, naked on his horse. As he dismount, we see his arse be very bad.   I ask him where Miss Sally be, for I tell him she had not returned to her bed, after they did swive in the night.    He swear he had not swive with her in the night.   I say: 'But you sent a word to her, by Talitha, by God his balls you did!'    And he allows he did send word, saying that he love her and would ask for her marriage--ask her father, I mean.    'And you bid her come to you?' I ask him.    He deny it, for he swore he had no wish to swive with her until they be married. 'But did you not want to see her? To make love to her? To hear her make love to you? Did you not long to kiss her? To hear from her lips, whether she would marry you or no?' He say he did only bid her, to send her answer by Talitha.    But I did not believe him.    I thought that when she got his word, that he wished to marry her, she had left her bed, and perhaps she search for him, longing for him so, that she did not care for the whipping she would get when she came back home again."

"Would you not do as much for love, Master Elias."

"I wish my love would ask it of me. But I did fear for Sally, not for that she should be whipped, but for that she would confirm herself a whore."

"But Matthew, he deny to have seen her?"

"I did not believe him, for that he was naked.    And mayhap he did not believe me, for he said it could not be that Sally was not in her bed. It were some mistake, he thought, and if we rode to Col. Waters, we should find she had but gone to the jakes, and some fool slave had thought the devil took her.    I say: 'Did you not meet with her, Cousin Matthew? Did you not ride naked with her?' He say he would kill me, an' I say so of Sally. Thomas asks him: 'Master Matthew, did you hear back from Talitha, what Miss Sally say?'   And that were a good question.    And Matthew he say he had not heard back.   And then Thomas he ask: 'But where did you appoint Talitha to find you again, to hear from her what Sally answer?'    And that were a good question too. Matthew did not answer this very clear, and so I did the more doubt him, and did think he had been at swiving with Sally."

"Did not you ask him, why he were naked?"

"He say he had galloped so, to make his sore arse ache the more.    But I did not believe him; I think he was naked to be swiving.   I say we should go to uncle Roger, his plantation, for that Sally might have gone there.    But Matthew he did swear that she were safe, sick in bed, and he would ride to Col. Waters, his plantation, and he would find Sally there.    Then Thomas says: 'Master Matthew, you be naked.'    Matthew paid him no mind. Then Thomas he say 'And you do ride up to Waters naked, and do ask after Miss Sally, if she be a-bed?'    And that were a good question, for it were a story for the county to tell of Sally, that a naked boy had asked of her health. Matthew was in rage, though, and he strike at Thomas with his whip, and Thomas do have to cover his face with his arms.   And Matthew do strike Thomas his chest, and then across his cock.    And Thomas dare not use his hands to cover his cock, for that Matthew might strike his face, and so he do drop to the ground, and let Matthew to whip his back and arse.   By and by Matthew do stop to whip, and he take from Thomas his clothes, that lay on the ground, and he get on his horse, and goes."

"Why did he take the clothes?"

"Thomas think he go to put them on.   They were but shirt and breeches for a slave, so I did laugh to think of him, riding up to Col. Waters, his place, up the long drive of elm trees, in slave clothes. And Thomas is a might shorter than Matthew. I say to Thomas, my cousin master Matthew did beat you sore, when you did but give him good advice. Now Thomas might have said : 'And you, master Elias, you have beat me this quarter hour for nothing'."

"And he might have said : 'you did nothing, Master Elias, when your cousin Matthew did whip me across my cock'."

"But Thomas he say: 'where should Miss Sally be?'   And he say we should go home to our place, to look for her there.   But I say do we go first to Uncle Roger, his place, and so there we go.   Thomas were naked save for his hat."

"Was Miss Sally at your Uncle Roger, Master?"

"Why you ask me that, Cesar?   Don't you know she were a-floating down the river?   How should she be at my Uncle?"

"So it is that day you speak of? The day Sally Waters was found drowned?"

"Of course it is, Cesar. What other night was she missed from her bed?"

"I am only a slave, sir, and we all be a might slow.   So you think she drown herself the night before she was found? How could she be in the river all that time, and not be found till sunset?"

"Thomas he say ... But at that time we do not know where she be, and so we went to my Uncle Roger, his plantation, to look for her.    We see Uncle Roger in his house.   And he says it be not proper, that I should go about with my slave, with he be naked.   And he sees the cuts that Matthew did make, with his horsewhip, across Thomas his chest, and his cock, and they did bleed some. And my Uncle he tells me that it be a sin to be in anger. He say I should correct my slave with a heavy rod, as the Bible say, but to whip in anger be a sin.    And Thomas he spoke up for me; he allow he did deserve to be whip, and that I did correct him like a loving master."

"But it were Matthew made those cuts!"

"And then Thomas he talk for me, which were not his place, and he say I had come to seek my cousin Matthew."

"But you knew where Matthew was! It were Sally you be searching!"

"And before I could speak, Uncle Roger he say Matthew had been from his bed all night, and he did believe he had been at whoring, and he did believe I been a-whoring with him.    And Thomas say I be in my bed all night, and had seen no sight of Matthew, since the day before.    Uncle Roger he began to have rage, that a naked negro should call him liar to his face, more free than any white man.   And he snatch up a cane.    But I catch him by the arm, and he lower his cane. He says he be in anger then, and will not beat, but he will lay it on Thomas by and by, when he were not in anger.    And I begin to ask of Miss Sally, but Thomas he do speak, more loud than me, and he ask Master Roger if he know Miss Sally had taken cold, from being whip naked by the water, and did he know she were most sick, and could not possibly leave her bed, for that she were too sick even to stand."

"Did not Master Roger beat him for that?"

"He were amazed.   So sore amazed he did forget to rage at Thomas, but did straight strike me with his cane instead, and tell me I should go to Hell, for that I was athiest and libertine.    It were not Christian, to go about with a naked servant shouting against his betters, he say. He say it were sedition. And so I could but bid him good day, and go, and so never came to ask him if he seen Miss Sally."

"So Thomas told him you had not seen Master Matthew, when the truth be you had whored with Talitha, with Matthew beside you, the night before, and you had seen Matthew again on the road that morning?"

"That were the truth, Cesar."

Cesar folded in his thumb.   He took his right hand, with all its fingers now folded in, and put it behind his back.   It was time for little Elias to be whipped.

V. For laughing at Jack's disaster.

"Do I deserve to be whip, Cesar?"

"You be master your own plantation now, Master Elias.   What I got to do with whipping you?"

"I done ask you a question.   I done tell you what I did - and do I deserve to be whip for it, or no?"

"I think you know, Mas' 'Lias."

"I asked you, Cesar."

"What you going do, and I say you earn to be whip?"

"We could go into your cabin. No call for any to know of it."

"It not so easy, Master 'Lias.    Say someone see your striped arse?"

"No one to see but Thomas. He do draw my bath."

"And Thomas he tell Gilly."

"I know you do not like her, Cesar, but she has been a good wife to your son, and a good servant to me."

"Do you not whip her? For you did use to whip her most of all."

"Since the babe, she has not been so wanton idle.    Last month I did but whip her once."

"The babe ..."

"It is not true, Cesar. The boy is not mine."

"She is your slave. And why she name the babe John, but for the Pa of his Pa?"

"He is not so light now - it were but that he were liverish when he was born. I did not swive with ..."

"ELIAS!"

"Let me finish! I did not swive with her at any time, when I could be father to the babe.   It were most a year before!"

"And so? Be not babes born at ten months?"

"But he were little - no ten months babe!"

"That were 'cause he sick.    That were no babe of my son!   And I reckon Gilly know who the father be!"

"Did she say it were me?"

"She tell ...   But she could not deny it were not her husband. She ... She be not a good wife to my son.   She's a whore.    I reckon the babe be yours and she do know it.   And ain't I hear she put him on your knee?   That you dandle him on your knee?"

"Little Jack is a pretty babe, but on my oath he is not my son.   You think I earn to be whip, for that I swive with Gilly?   You think I be whip for that, asides for with Hainey?

"I ain't say you earn to be whip for you put temptation to Hainey.   I think you do be whip, for that you play at whore with Miss Sally."

"Uncle Roger he whip me for that."

"I think as you plays wanton at swimming bare with her, is why she drown herself. You ain't be whip enough for that."

"I allow when I strip to swim, and Sally be behind us, I do turn around to show her my cock.    But had she been looking away, as she were meant to, she would not have see it.   And anyways she do like more to look at Matthew bare, than me.    And I allow we do look at her, through the 'hiccory, when she strip to cross the creek, but an' we do not do that Cesar, she would have drown with no one to save her.   I did not swive with Sally and I won't be whip for what you think I did, when I none!"

"I ain't aiming to whip you, Master. That be your thought."

"I aint earn to be whip for what I beget a babe on Gilly; for I none.   Since the day I say Thomas should have her, whether she be willing or no, I do not swive with her."

"What did you do afore? What you do, with Gilly, up to the time you marry her to my son."

"I do whip her most every day, in that time, whether she be idle or no.    And when I have her in the barn to whip, I nibble her privities, in the way she like, and she do take my cock in her mouth, and I spend my seed in her. I swive with her. I foutter her. What do you want me to say, Cesar. I did every kind of fornication with her, as you well know I did."

"Did you have sport with her."

"She did not sport, in the way Hainey did. I do remember best, how Hainey got the whip from me, and when I came after, she caught me such a stroke across my privates, that I had fear of it. And then I had such rage as I did beat her very sore, and did foutter her in rage. I have not any fouttering of Gilly, that I remember so well. Each foutering of Gilly was like another."

"Thomas does not feel so."

"But he has not had so many. What do you want, Cesar. It has not been so well as I hoped, to marry her to Thomas, but what would you have in stead?"

"Swive with her. You are the master. Leave my son free of her."

"Thomas would have no other. When we left my uncle Roger, Thomas he took the old Indian trail, and I let him do as he would, and followed after. We had most continually to swim, for the trail is across the swamp, and Thomas was naked and had not to undess. I gew weary of it, and went naked, and made him look after my clothes.
And it were a kind of lechery, to be naked and push through the cypress and pohiccory, talking of swiving, with our cocks erect.

The Queen of Hearts She made some tarts, All on a summer's day; The Knave of Hearts, He stole those tarts, And took them clean away.
	The King of Hearts Called for the tarts, And beat the knave full sore: The Knave of Hearts Brought back the tarts, And vowed he'd steal no more
The King of Spades He kissed the maids, Which made the Queen full sore; The Queen of Spades She beat those maids, And turned them out of door:
	The Knave of Spades Grieved for those jades, And did for them implore; The Queen so gent She did relent And vowed she'd ne'er strike more.
The King of Clubs He often drubs His loving Queen and wife; The Queen of Clubs Returns his snubs, And all is noise and strife:
	The Knave of Clubs Gives winks and rubs. And swears he'll take her part; For when our kings Will do such things, They should be made to smart.
The Diamond King I fain would sing, And likewise his fair Queen; But that the Knave, A haughty slave, Must needs step in between;
	Good Diamond King, With hempen string, The haughty Knave destroy! Then may your Queen With mind serene, Your royal bed enjoy

Sally, Sally Waters, Sprinkle in the pan, Rise Sally, rise Sally, Choose a young man. Bow to the east, Bow to the west, Bow to the young man That you love best.
		Now you are married You must be good, And help your wife To chop the wood, Chop it thin And bring it in, And kiss her over and over again.

There was a little boy, and a little girl, Lived in an alley; Says the little boy, to the little girl, Shall I, oh, shall I?
	Says the little girl, to the little boy, What shall you do? Says the little boy, to the little girl, I will kiss you

Once in my life I married a wife, And where do you think I found her? On Gretna Green, in velvet sheen, And I took up a stick to pound her.
	She jumped over a barberry-bush, And I jumped over a timber, I showed her a gay gold ring, And she showed me her finger