ccept a job as janitor and at one time was janitor for three
banks in town. He is still working as janitor in two buildings, despite
his seventy-three years.

Uncle Henry's "book learning" is very limited, but he has a store of
knowledge gathered here and there that is surprising. He uses very
little dialect except when he is excited or worried. He speaks of his
heart as "my time keeper". When he promises anything in the future he
says, "Please the Lord to spare me", and when anyone gets a bit
impatient he bids them, "Be paciable, be paciable". Dismal is one of his
favorite words but it is always "dism". When he says "Now, I'm tellin'
yer financially" or "dat's financial", he means that he is being very
frank and what he is saying is absolutely true.

Regarded highly as the local weather prophet, Uncle Henry gets up every
morning before daybreak and scans the heavens to see what kind of
weather is on its way. He guards all these "signs" well and under no
consideration will he tell them. They were given to him by someone who
has passed on and he keeps them as a sacred trust. If asked, upon making
a prediction, "How do you know?" Uncle Henry shakes his wise old head
and with a wave of the hand says, "Dat's all right, you jess see now,
it's goin' ter be dat way". And it usually is!

Seventy-three years ago "last gone June" Uncle Henry was born in the Mt.
Zion community in Hancock county (Georgia), seven miles from Sparta. His
mother was Molly Navery Hunt, his father, Jim Rogers. They belonged to
Mr. Jenkins Hunt and his wife "Miss Rebecca". Henry was the third of
eight children. He has to say about his early life:

"Yassum, I wuz born right over there in Hancock county, an' stayed there
'til the year 1895 when Mrs. Riley come fer me to hep' her in the Hotel
here in Washington an' I been here ev'ry since. I recollects well living
on the Hunt plantation. It wuz a big place an' we had fifteen or twenty
slaves"--(The "we" was proudly possessive)--"we wuz all as happy passel
o' niggers as could be found anywhere. Aunt Winnie wuz the cook an' the
kitchen wuz a big old one out in the yard an' had a fireplace that would
'commodate a whole fence rail, it wuz so big, an' had pot hooks, pots,
big old iron ones, an' everything er round to cook on. Aunt Winnie had a
great big wooden tray dat she would fix all us little niggers' meals in
an' call us up an' han' us a wooden spoon apiece an' make us all set
down 'round the tray an' eat