one at night
To that puzzle she waited for no answer beyond the distress I betrayed , but turned to matters less speculative , and soon said good night . On the third evening -- my ! If I could have given all the topography of the entire country between uncle 's plantation and my native city on the margin of the Great Lakes , with full account of its every natural and social condition , her questions would have wholly gathered them in . She asked if our climate was very hard on negroes ; what clothing we wore in summer , and how we kept from freezing in midwinter ; about wages , the price of food , what crops were raised , and what the `` patarolers '' did with a negro when they caught one at night without a pass . She made me desperate , and when the fourth night saw her crouched on my floor it found me prepared ; I plied her with questions from start to finish . She yielded with a perfect courtesy ; told of the poor lot of the few free negroes of whom she knew , and of the time-serving and shifty indolence , the thievishness , faithlessness , and unaspiring torpidity of `` some niggehs '' ; and when I opened the way for her to speak of uncle and aunt she poured forth their praises with an ardor that brought her own tears . I asked her if she believed she could ever be happy away from them .