Evidently Darley was not a man--he must be some other kind of animal--possibly a dog, maybe an elephant.
However, tails are common to all animals, so I ventured to say: "And what a tail he had!" "ONE! He had a thousand!" This was bewildering.

I did not quite know what to say, so I only said: "Yes, he WAS rather well fixed in the matter of tails." "For a negro, and a crazy one at that, I should say he was," said she.
It was getting pretty sultry for me.

I said to myself, "Is it possible she is going to stop there, and wait for me to speak?
If she does, the conversation is blocked.

A negro with a thousand tails is a topic which a person cannot talk upon fluently and instructively without more or less preparation.

As to diving rashly into such a vast subject--" But here, to my gratitude, she interrupted my thoughts by saying: "Yes, when it came to tales of his crazy woes, there was simply no end to them if anybody would listen.