Jim came skipping out at
the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from
the town pump had
always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but
now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at
the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there
waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling,
fighting, skylarking.