Browse:This Is Uncle Ben Mackey (Volume 1, entries 918)
This Is Uncle Ben Mackey
Volume 1, entries 918. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → Consultation Technique. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 918
Dere was a young girl one time. Dey was workin' seems like on a big strawburry faum [farm and it was her great ambition to make fun of everybody - you see, to make game of everybody. So, dere was an ole man, you understand, dere - he was kinda broke up and cripple same as me, you understand. So this ole fellah come out and try to pick burries, and she clapt her hands and laff at him every morning he come out, chew understand. So he tole her one morning, he says, "Daughter, let me tell you somepin, that laffin' is gon'a cause you trouble one of these days." So she laft and clapt her hands, told her mother about it - her mother, she laft. So, this evening when dey all got through pickin' burries, come in, why this ole man, when dey all went to wash up of the evening, you understand, this ole man set right down and waited until everybody washed up. She was the last one washed. When she wash she was always kinda countrary, you know, she didn't poah water like de rest of dem [let someone pour water over her hands], she had to wash in a basin. The ole man gits up, you understand, and goes and takes dat water, goes in de house, puts dat in a little can and sets it on de stove, sets back and began singin' a little, some kin'a little piece over this while it was - after it got to boilin', you know, steam comin' out, he sings a little piece [see Singing in Index]. After she got to steamin' right good, he got to singin', you understand, taken de can off and sit it under his baid. Next morning dey called 'em all up you understand fer to go to work. Every- body come up but de girl. Dey call this girl. She tole dem she can't git up. She says, "Got no use of my limbs." "What's de matter?" "I have no use of my limbs. I can't move over." She tried dat and she couldn't move over. Dey sent fer de doctor. De doctor came. He shuck his haid, "It was the strangest case I ever seen." He done everything he knowed. Twas another lady there, she begin talkin', she says, "Don't chew know one thing," she says, "I told joo go laffin' at dat ole man," she says, "I told joo go laffin' at dat ole man. Dat ole man's fixed joo." Well, she didn't believe in nobody fixin' yo', yo' understand. Her mother said, "No, dey ain't nothin' like dat; de girl jes' caught a coal [cold]." She says, "You'd better go to work and see about it," she says, "somebody - dat ole man fixed her," she says. "He told her two or three times about her laffin' at him, and she would keep on laffin', '' she says. So, it kept on a week or so. But the girl didn't git no worse and didn't git no better. So dey kep' sendin' fer the doctor. And the doctor didn't do her no good, so dey sent fer an ole gentlemun by de name of Ole Uncle Ben Mackey. He was suppose to be a wizard. Ole Uncle Ben Mackey, he comes you understand and looks at her. "Uh huh! I know what's de matter." So now, dey knowed Ole Uncle Ben hadn't been there. "Uh huh! I know what's de matter." They says, "What's de matter?" He says, "Have you got two dollahs and a half?" Her mother says, "Yes, I've got two dollahs and a half." He says, "Gimme two dollahs and a half." So she give him two dollahs and a half. He goes and knocks on the ole gentlemun's shanty doah. De ole gentlemun comes to de doah. He say, "You take dat can of water from under yoah baid," he says, "and poah it out," he says. "Remember, '' he says, "this is Uncle Ben Mackey." Well, I guess the ole man kinda knowed Uncle Ben, you under- stand. He didn't have no talk. He went and throwed dat out. No sooner 'an he throwed de water out, in about twenty minutes de girl got up, walked aroun' jes' like she was at first. [Snow Hill, Md., (?), 8:1; near Washington, D. C.,1901, but it sounds more like a folktale.]