PORGY
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running vibrance of sound. Then a deep baritone hummed for a second and raised an air:
"Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger;
Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger;
Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger;
'Cause yuh can't git yo' rights w'en yuh do.
Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger;
Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger;
'Cause yuh can't git yo' rights w'en yuh do.
"I was sleepin' on a pile ob lumber,
Jus' as happy as uh man kin be,
W'en a w'ite man come wake me from my slumber,
An' he say, 'Yuh gots tuh work now, 'cause yuh free!'"
Jus' as happy as uh man kin be,
W'en a w'ite man come wake me from my slumber,
An' he say, 'Yuh gots tuh work now, 'cause yuh free!'"
Then they were all in on the chorus:
"Ain't it hahd tuh be a nigger,"
and the gloom hummed with the low, close harmonies.
In another corner the crap circle had gathered. Porgy's delight in the game had not waned with his increasing interests, and he sat fondling the small white cubes, and whispering to them in his old confidential manner.
"Little w'ite babies," he crooned, "come sing fuh dis nigger."
