Of Frenchmen, cows and cats
"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?"
"No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said - not a single word."
"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?"
"I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. Spose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy - what would you think?"
"I wouldn't think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head. Dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat."
"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying do you know how to talk French."
"Well, den, why couldn't he say it?"
"Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman way of saying it."
"Well, it's a blame' ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."
"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?"
"No, a cat don't."
"Well, does a cow?"
"No, a cow don't, nuther."
"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?"
"No, dey don't"
"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?"
"'Course."
"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?"
"Why, mos' sholy it is."
"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that."
"Is a cat a man, Huck?"
"No."
"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man? - er is a cow a cat?"
"No, she ain't either of them."
"Well, den, she ain' got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of them. Is a Frenchman a man?"
"Yes."
"Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!"
I see it warn't no use wasting words - you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.
| Mark Twain
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
| |