died
on the plantation. That same carpenter made 'most all the beds the white
folks and us slaves slept on. Them old beds--they called 'em
teesters--had cords for springs; nobody never heard of no metal springs
them days. They jus' wove them cords criss-cross, from one side to the
other and from head to foot. When they stretched and sagged they was
tightened up with keys what was made for that purpose.

"Jus' look at my room," Nellie laughed. "I saw you lookin' at my bed. It
was made at Wood's Furniture Shop, right here in Athens, and I've had it
ever since I got married the first time. Take a good look at it, for
there ain't many lak it left." Nellie's pride in her attractively
furnished room was evident as she told of many offers she has had for
this furniture, but she added: "I want to keep it all here to use myself
jus' as long as I live. Shucks, I done got plumb off from what I was
tellin' you jus' ravin' 'bout my old furniture and things.

"My Mother died when I was jus' a little girl and she's buried in the
old family graveyard on the Weir place, but there are several other
slaves buried there and I don't know which grave is hers. Grandma raised
me, and I was jus' gittin' big enough to handle that old peafowl-tail
fly brush they used to keep the flies off the table when we were set
free.

"It wasn't long after the War when the Yankees come to Athens. Folks had
to bury or hide evvything they could, for them Yankees jus' took
anything they could git their hands on, 'specially good food. They would
catch up other folks' chickens and take hams from the smokehouses, and
they jus' laughed in folks' faces if they said anything 'bout it. They
camped in the woods here on Hancock Avenue, but of course it wasn't
settled then lak it is now. I was mighty scared of them Yankees and they
didn't lak me neither. One of 'em called me a little white-headed devil.

"One of my aunts worked for a northern lady that they called Mrs.
Meeker, who lived where the old Barrow home is now. Evvy summer when she
went back up North she would leave my aunt and uncle to take care of her
place. It was right close to the Yankees' camp, and the soldiers made my
aunt cook for them sometimes. I was livin' with her then, and I was so
scared of 'em that I stayed right by her. She never had to worry 'bout
where I was them days, for I was right by her side as long as the
Yankees was hangin' 'round Athens. My uncle used to say that he had seen
them Ya