Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/219

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Certain Negro Folk-Tales.
209

they've killed him." He went to the same place. Seven robbers come out as usual. He said, "Rock, open." The first thing he saw was his brother lying dismembered in the middle of the floor. He put him in the sack, took it on his back-and went home. He said to his sister-in-law, "I found my brother cut up piece by piece. I'm going to look for a shoemaker to sew him together. I'll put him in a bed, we will make out he died sudden." (The woman had three boys and one girl.) "If one of your boys wants to be a doctor or a priest we'll make him one. If the other wants to be a governor we'll educate him for it. The girl we'll teach what she wants to know. What money you want, when you need it I will give it to you to the end of your life." They put the dead man in bed, the shoemaker came and sewed him up, they gave him a lot of money for his work. When the seven robbers came they did not find the dismembered man, they said, "The robber has been again in our house." The next day they left one robber in the house again, but no one came. The captain of the robbers said that he was going into the city to see where they had buried him. The first house he came to was the house of the shoemaker. The shoemaker was at work. The captain said to him, "Can you sew well [enough] to make a pair of shoes?" The shoemaker answered, "That is nothing. Yesterday I sewed up a man's body that they cut up joint by joint." He had agreed with the poor brother not to tell. The captain knew that was the place. He said to the shoemaker, "Go with me. Show me the place. I'll pay you twice as much as they paid you." The shoemaker showed the place. The captain went home, he put the six robbers each in a barrel, he rolled the barrels on the road. He rolled them to the house of the widow. He asked her if she wanted to buy molasses. The woman said no. The boys went to the house of their uncle, they asked him to buy the molasses. They told the captain to put the