t for her
long ago by a grandson who drove a "hack." When she took us into the
crowded, but clean room, she showed us proudly the portrait of this big
grandson, now dead. All the walls were thickly covered with framed
pictures of different members of her family, most of whom are now dead.
In their midst was a large picture of Abraham Lincoln.

"Dere's all my chillun. I had fo' daughter and three 'grands', but all
gone now but one niece. I deeded de place to her. She live out north
now, but she send back de money fer de taxes and insurance and to pay de
firemens."

Then she proudly pointed out a framed picture of herself when she was
young.

"Why Auntie, you were certainly nice looking then."

Her chest expanded and her manner became more sprightly as she said, "I
wus de pebble on de beach den!"

"And I suppose you remember about slavery days?"

"Yes ma'm, I'm ninety years old--I wus a grown 'oman when freedom come.
I 'longed to Mr. William Eve. De plantachun was right back here--all dis
land was fields den, slap down to Bolzes'."

"So you remember a lot about those times?"

She laughed delightedly. "Yas'm. I 'longed to Miss Eva Eve. My missus
married Colonel Jones. He got a boy by her and de boy died."

"You mean Colonel Jones, the one who wrote books?"

"Yas'm. He a lawyer, too, down to de Cote House. My missus was Mrs.
Carpenter's mother, but she didn't brought her here."

"You mean she was her step-mother?"

"Yas'm, dat it. I go to see dem folks on de hill sometime. Dey good to
me, allus put somepen in mah hands."

"What kind of work did you do on the plantation?"

"When I wus 'bout ten years old dey started me totin' water--you know
ca'in water to de hands in de field. 'Bout two years later I got my
first field job, 'tending sheep. When I wus fifteen my old Missus gib me
to Miss Eva--you know she de one marry Colonel Jones. My young missus
wus fixin' to git married, but she couldn't on account de war, so she
brought me to town and rented me out to a lady runnin' a boarding house.
De rent was paid to my missus. One day I wus takin' a tray from de
out-door kitchen to de house when I stumbled and dropped it. De food
spill all over de ground. De lady got so mad she picked up a butcher
knife and chop me in de haid. I went runnin' till I come to de place
where my white folks live. Miss Eva took me and wash de blood out mah
head and put medicine on it, and she wrote a note to de lady and she
say, 'Ellen i