rmillon. Ketch up one--I forgotten what pound they say. Roll. Roll
duh watermillon. Roll 'em on snake! They say, 'Snake bite 'em?' Child
say, 'No. Must a scratch.' See blood run on boy leg. Child get
unconscion that minute. Gone right out. Jess so. Ease out so. I cry. I
cry!"

Lillie: "You know 'em, Mom Hagar?"

Hagar: "No! No! Lill, fever got me! Cold get me till my rump dead. Got
hospital boy rouse one time say, 'Ma, less go home! Red stripe snake
bite me.'"

* * * * *

Hagar: "Klu Klux?" (Chin cupped in hand--elbow on knee--looking way
off--)

"Reckon that the way them old timey people call 'em. Have to run way,
you go church. Going to come in to ketch you or do any mischievous
thing--come carry you place they going beat you--in suit of white. Old
white man to Wilderness Plantation. Parish old man name. Treat his wife
bad. Come to house, ain't crack. Come right in suit of white. Drag him
out--right to Woodstock there where Mr. Dan get shoot. Put a beating on
that white man there till he mess up! Oman never gone back to him yet!"

"A man wuz name (I forgot what the man name wuz)--wuz a white man mess
round wid a colored woman and they didn't do a God thing but gone and
put a beating on you, darling! Come in. Grab you and go. Put a beating
on you till you can't see. Know they got a good grub to lick you wid.
They git done you can't sit down. Ain't going carry you just for play
with."

"Mom Hagar, you wanter vote?"

Hagar: "Oh my God!"

"Aunt Hagar are the colored people happier now than the old timey
slavery time people?"

Hagar: "Young people now got the world by force. Don't care. Got more
trick than law low. Tricky! Can't beat the old people. Can't equal to
'em. Some the young people you say 'AMEN' in church they make fun o'
you. Every tub stand on his own bottom. Can't truss 'em.

"Ma say some dem plan to run way. Say, 'Less run! Less run!' Master
ketch dem and fetch dem in. Lay 'em cross barrel. Beat dem till they
wash in blood. Fetch 'em back. Place 'em cross the barrel--hogsket
barrel--Christ! They ramp wash in blood! Beat Ma sister. He sister
sickly. Never could clear task--like he want. My Ma have to work he self
to death to help Henritta so sickly. Clear task to keep from beat. Some
obersheer mean. Oaks labor. (Meaning her Ma and ma's family were
laboring on Oaks Plantation--the plantation where Gov. Joseph Allston
and Theodosia his wife lived on Waccamaw.) Mother