Carlisle--and niggers is all dey is too--dey don't know what no
plantation is. When I got big enough fer to step around, from de very
fus, my maw took me in de big house. It still dat, cep it done bout fell
down now, to what it wuz then. But some of Marse's folks, dey libs down
dar still. Den you see, dey is like dese white folks up 'round here now.
Dey ain't got no big money like dey had when I wuz a runnin' up. Time I
got big enough fer to run aroun' in my shirt tail, my maw, she lowed one
night to my paw, when he wuz settin by de fire, dat black little nigger
over dar, he got to git hissef some pants kaise I'se gwine to put him up
over de white fokes table. In dem times de doos and winders, dey nebber
had no screen wire up to dem like dey is now. Fokes didn't know nothin
bout no such as dat den. My Marster and all de other big white fokes,
dey raised pea fowls. Is yu ebber seed any? Well, ev'y spring us little
niggers, we coch dem wild things at night. Dey could fly like a buzzard.
Dey roosted up in de pine trees, right up in de tip top. So de Missus,
she hab us young uns clam up dar and git 'em when dey first took roost.
Us would clam down and my maw, she would pull de long feathers out'n de
tails. Fer weeks de cocks, dey wouldn't let nobody see 'em if dey could
help it. Dem birds is sho proud. When dey is got de feathers, dey jus
struts on de fences, and de fences wuz rail in dem days. If'n dey could
see dereself in a puddle o' water after a rain, dey would stay dar all
day a struttin' and carring on like nobody's business. Yes sir, dem wuz
purty birds. After us got de feathers, de Missus, she'ud low dat all de
nigger gals gwine to come down in de wash house and make fly brushes.
Sometime de Missus 'ud gib some of de gals some short feathers to put in
dere Sunday hats. When dem gals got dem hats on, I used to git so
disgusted wid 'em I'd leave 'em at church and walk home by my sef.
Anyway, by dat time all de new fly brushes wuz made and de Missus, she
hab fans make from de short feathers for de white fokes to fan de air
wid on hot days. Lawdy, I'se strayed fur from what I had started out fer
to tell you. But I knowed dat you young fokes didn't know nothin' bout
all dat. In dem days de dining room wuz big and had de windows open all
de summer long, and all de doos stayed streched too. Quick as de mess of
victuals began to come on de table, a little nigger boy was put up in de
swing, I calls it, over de table to fan d