arn't
but 'bout a mile from our plantation and daddy was 'lowed to stay wid
his fambly most evvy night; he was allus wid us on Sundays. Marse Gerald
didn't have no slaves but my mammy and her chillun, and he was sho
mighty good to us.

"Marse Gerald had a nice four-room house wid a hall all de way through
it. It even had two big old fireplaces on one chimbly. No, mam, it
warn't a rock chimbly; dat chimbly was made out of home-made bricks.
Marster's fambly had deir cookin' done in a open fireplace lak evvybody
else for a long time and den jus' 'fore de big war he bought a stove.
Yes, mam, Marse Gerald bought a cook stove and us felt plumb rich 'cause
dere warn't many folks dat had stoves back in dem days.

"Mammy lived in de old kitchen close by de big house 'til dere got to be
too many of us; den Marse Gerald built us a house jus' a little piece
off from de big house. It was jus' a log house, but Marster had all dem
cracks chinked tight wid red mud, and he even had one of dem
franklin-back chimblies built to keep our little cabin nice and warm.
Why, Child, ain't you never seed none of dem old chimblies? Deir backs
sloped out in de middle to throw out de heat into de room and keep too
much of it from gwine straight up de flue. Our beds in our cabin was
corded jus' lak dem up at de big house, but us slept on straw ticks and,
let me tell you, dey sho slept good atter a hard days's wuk.

"De bestest water dat ever was come from a spring right nigh our cabin
and us had long-handled gourds to drink it out of. Some of dem gourds
hung by de spring all de time and dere was allus one or two of 'em
hangin' by de side of our old cedar waterbucket. Sho', us had a cedar
bucket and it had brass hoops on it; dat was some job to keep dem hoops
scrubbed wid sand to make 'em bright and shiny, and dey had to be clean
and pretty all de time or mammy would git right in behind us wid a
switch. Marse Gerald raised all dem long-handled gourds dat us used
'stid of de tin dippers folks has now, but dem warn't de onliest kinds
of gourds he growed on his place. Dere was gourds mos' as big as
waterbuckets, and dey had short handles dat was bent whilst de gourds
was green, so us could hang 'em on a limb of a tree in de shade to keep
water cool for us when us was wukin' in de field durin' hot weather.

"I never done much field wuk 'til de war come on, 'cause Mistess was
larnin' me to be a housemaid. Marse Gerald and Miss Annie never had no
chillun