68 
SKETCHES OF THE WEST.—NO. I. 
ored jean clothes, and a huge, white felt hat, the 
wide brim cocked up before and behind in military 
style, giving him a rakish and somewhat conse¬ 
quential appearance. He sat astride the bare back 
of the nigh ox of his team, hitched on to one of the 
smaller kind of Dutch wagons filled with corn in 
the ear, and topped off with vegetables, and fresh 
killed pigs, and poultry “ fixins” of various kinds, 
bound for the Louisville market. He flourished a 
tall whip, which was as thick as our arm, and 
braided from hemp of some six feet length. He 
sat him well, with a jaunty air, and was cheering 
on his patient team by singing in a lugubrious tone, 
to the popular old negro air of “ Long time ago,” 
probably an improvisatrized song, every stanza of 
Which, in order to take fresh breath, and give vent 
to the exuberance of his feelings, he wound up in 
a chorus of loud cracks of his whip. 
(Fig. 16.) 
Sambo. 
u Den goin s down to Loudeville, 
Long time ago, 
Where all de wagons chucky fill 
Stan’ in a row ; 
Crack ! crack ! crack 
u Ob pig and turkey chicken big, 
Long time ago, 
Who neber more his foot he dig, 
In garden ob Sambo • 
Crack! crack! crack l v 
Here the coach stopped to deliver a passenger, 
while onntbJ- ibc opportunity of questioning 
our ebony serenades 
“ So then, Sambo, you have a garden it seems V 
“ Yes, sartin, master give me garden, and one 
day a week to work him.” 
“ And what do you raise there ?” 
Here he handed out sundry vegetables, and 
among others a huge carrot about as big as his leg 
from the hip down (not including his foot though), 
measuring it off with great pride. 
“ Pray how did you produce that ?” 
He placed his finger significantly upon his nose, 
and replied: “ Master think him garden never 
grow nothin’, poor dry soil; I wheel him on ma¬ 
nure, I work him late, I work him arlv.” 
As working “ late and arly,” as Sambo had it, 
when the dew is on the ground, is the very phi¬ 
losophy of tilling dry soils, and to our certain 
knowledge has been the means of doubling crops 
in several instances, without any addition of fertil¬ 
izing materials, we began now to 
listen to the colloquy with great 
interest. 
“Sambo, you are a genius to 
grow such carrots, a scientific 
agriculturist, did you ever read 
Davy or Tull 1” 
“ Tull,” he replied with a grin, 
“ who be he ? Dog that tree de 
coon ?” 
“Not exactly, but do you pro¬ 
duce other vegetables equally 
large ?” 
Here he put his finger to his 
nose again. “Pa’snip in the 
spring—him grow a mighty smart 
chance all winter.” 
“Very well. Sambo, very well, 
indeed; but now pray tell me how 
do you contrive to make such fat 
luscious-looking poultry there, 
as I see in the wagon ? I fancy 
that they did not grow in the 
same way that your carrots and 
parsnips have here.” 
“ I reckon not ezakly,” said he, and burst into a 
loud laugh, and commenced dancing all round the 
coach. 
“ Well, you foolish fellow, we must be off in a 
minute, here is a hit (a shilling-piece) now tell 
me.” 
Taking the money handed him, he turned up 
tlb whites of his eyes, and commenced: “ Master’s 
corr^rib purty handy I reckon.” 
“ Yeiy likely, but that’s not all.” 
* ^ef liber mighty plenty, and pork crackalins.’ 
