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10 The Conjure Woman 

negro blood. There was a shrewdness in his eyes, too, which was not altogether African, and which, as we afterwards learned from experience, was indicative of a corresponding shrewdness in his character. He went on eating the grapes, but did not seem to enjoy himself quite so well as he had apparently done before he became aware of our presence. 

"Do you live around here?" I asked, anxious to put him at his ease. 

"Yas, şuh. I lives des over yander, behine de new' san'-hill, on de Lumberton plank-road." 

"Do you know anything about the time when this vineyard was cultivated?" 

"Lawd bless you, suh, I knows all about it. Hey ain' na'er a man in dis settlement w'at won' tell you old Julius McAdoo 'uz dawn wn raise' on di yer same plantation. Is you de Norv'n