The Grinder Papers — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LHE GRINDER PAPERS. IOI “NUMBER THIRTEEN. CHARITY GRINDER IS POISONED, How am I? Wal, I’m alive, and the only wonder is J ain’t here to invite ye to my funeral? Been sick? Why, lawful suz! I’ve been nearer dead than I ever was before. I’ve been pisoned! I ain’t over ityet. Jest put the rocking-cheer before the fire and give me a footstool, and any kind of a piece of cake and a glass of wine you've got handy, and I'll tell you all about it. You see I’ve been so shook that I always feel a kind o’ empty gnawing tu the pit o my stomach at twelve o'clock, un- less I hev somethin’ tu eat. J dont keer for no solid lunch; some cold ham or chicken, or a few biscuit, will du me_ until dinner. And don't make no fuss over dinner for me; ef I hev roast beef and two kinds o' vegetables, and some kind o’ pud- din’ for dessert, I’m perfectly contented, and allers have been. Yes, Evelina, I hev been pisoned—so’s all the Lowerys, the hull bilin’ of ’em ; and somebody’dorter to be hung for it—who, I can't say, but I lay it tu thenigger. Yousee they've got one, a Freedman young woman, from down South, black as the han- dle o that numberill, and jest as sarcy as she kin live and be. I've tried help o’ all kinds—Irish, and Dutch, and Americans— Eomilcbooks.¢co