midnight
`` How did we git los ' f ` om we 's white folks ? Dat 's a sad story fur Christmas , Juke , but ef you sesso -- `` Hit all happened in one night , time o ' de big break in de levee , seven years gone by . We was lookin ' fur de bank ter crack crost de river f ` om us , an ' so boss done had tooken all han 's over , cep 'n us ole folks an ' chillen , ter he ' p work an ' watch de yether side . ` Bout midnight , whiles we was all sleepin ' , come a roa'in ' soun ' , an ' fus ' thing we knowed , all in de pitchy darkness , we was floatin ' away -- nobody cep 'n des you an ' me an ' yo ' mammy in de cabin -- floatin ' an ' bumpin ' an ' rockin , ' _ an ' all de time dark as pitch _ . So we kep ' on -- one minute stiddy , nex ' minute _ cher-plunk _ gins ' a tree ur some ` h 'n' nother -- _ all in de dark _ -- an ' one minute you 'd cry -- you was des a weanin ' baby den -- an ' nex ' minute I 'd heah de bed you an ' yo ' ma was in bump gins ' de wall , an ' you 'd laugh out loud , an ' yo ' mammy she 'd holler -- _ all in de dark _ . An ' so we travelled , up an ' down , bunkety-bunk , seem lak a honderd hours ; tell treckly a _ termenjus _ wave come , an ' I had sca ` cely felt it boomin ' onder me when I pitched , an ' ev ` ything went travellin ' . An ' when I put out my han ' , I felt you by me -- but yo ' mammy , she war n't nowhar .