White, as well as I, perceived the
difficulty, for yonder slept the old folks, there the sons, and a
little farther along slept the daughters; and but one other bed
remained. Who should have this bed, was the puzzling question.
There was some whispering between the old folks, some confused
looks among the young, as the time for going to bed approached.
After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I relieved the
kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, "Friend White, having
got entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a
proof of it, I must allow you to sleep with me to-night." White
kept up the joke, by seeming to esteem himself the favored party,
and thus the difficulty was removed. If we went to a hotel, and
called for dinner, the landlord was sure to set one table for
White and another for me, always taking him to be master, and me
the servant. Large eyes were generally made when the order was
given to remove the dishes from my table to that of White's. In
those days, it was thought strange that a white man and a colored
man could dine peaceably at the same table, and in some parts the
strangeness of such a sight has not entirely subsided.
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