her. "Lewis
come to see me any time 'cause his Marster, Mr. Willis, give him a pass
so he wasn't scared to be out at night 'count of the Patterollers. They
didn't bother a nigger if he had a pass, they sho' did beat him." [HW: ?]

When Adeline was fourteen years old she and Lewis married, or rather it
was like this: "We didn't have no preacher when we married, my Marster
and Mistess said they didn't care, and Lewis's Master and Mistress said
they didn't care, so they all met up at my white folks' house and had us
come in and told us they didn't mind our marryin'. My Marster said, 'Now
you and Lewis wants to marry and there ain't no objections so go on and
jump over the broom stick together and you is married'. That was all
there was to it and we was married. I lived on with my white folks and
he lived on with his and kept comin' to see me jest like he had done
when he was a courtin'. He never brought me any presents 'cause he
didn't have no money to buy them with, but he was good to me and that
was what counted."

Superstition and signs still have a big place in the life of this woman
even after a hundred long years. She has outlived or forgotten many she
used to believe in, but still holds fast to those she remembers. If a
rooster crows anywhere near your door somebody is coming "and you might
as well look for 'em, 'cause that rooster done told you". When a person
dies if there is a clock in the room it must be stopped the very minute
of death or it will never be any more good--if left ticking it will be
ruined. Every dark cloudy day brings death--"Somebody leaving this
unfriendly world today". Then she is sure when she "feels sadness" and
doesn't know why, it a sign somebody is dying "way off somewhere and we
don't know it". Yes, she certainly believes in all the signs she
remembers even "to this good day", as she says.

When asked about the war Aunt Adeline said that times were much harder
then: "Why we didn't have no salt--jest plain salt, and couldn't get
none them days. We had to get up the dirt in the smokehouse where the
meat had dripped and 'run it' like lye, to get salt to put on
things--yas'm, times was sho' hard and our Marster was off in war all
four years and we had to do the best we could. We niggers wouldn't know
nothing about it all if it hadn't a been for a little old black, sassy
woman in the Quarters that was a talkin' all the time about 'freedom'.
She give our white folks lots of trouble--she was