winter. Dere was a man on de
plantation what made all our brogans for winter. Marster made sho us had
plenty of good warm clothes and shoes to keep us warm when winter come.

"Folkses raised deir livin', all of it, at home den. Dey growed all
sorts of gyarden truck sech as corn, peas, beans, sallet, 'taters,
collards, ingons, and squashes. Dey had big fields of grain. Don't
forgit dem good old watermillions; Niggers couldn't do widout 'em.
Marster's old smokehouse was plumb full of meat all de time, and he had
more cows, hogs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, and de lak, dan
I ever larnt how to count. Dere warn't no runnin' off to de sto' evvy
time dey started cookin' a company meal.

"Dem home-made cotton gins was mighty slow. Us never seed no fast
sto'-bought gins dem days. Our old gins was turned by a long pole what
was pulled around by mules and oxen, and it tuk a long time to git de
seeds out of de cotton dat way. I'se seed 'em tie bundles of fodder in
front of de critters so dey would go faster tryin' to git to de fodder.
Dey grez dem gins wid homemade tar. De big sight was dem old home-made
cotton presses. When dem old mules went round a time or two pullin' dat
heavy weight down, dat cotton was sho pressed.

"Us chillun sho did lak to see 'em run dat old gin, 'cause 'fore dey
ever had a gin Marster used to make us pick a shoe-full of cotton seeds
out evvy night 'fore us went to bed. Now dat don't sound so bad, Missy,
but did you ever try to pick any seeds out of cotton?

"Course evvybody cooked on open fireplaces dem days, and dat was whar us
picked out dem cotton seeds, 'round dat big old fireplace in de kitchen.
All de slaves et together up dar at de big house, and us had some mighty
good times in dat old kitchen. Slave quarters was jus' little one room
log cabins what had chimblies made of sticks and red mud. Dem old
chimblies was all de time a-ketchin' on fire. De mud was daubed 'twixt
de logs to chink up de cracks, and sometimes dey chinked up cracks in de
roof wid red mud. Dere warn't no glass windows in dem cabins, and dey
didn't have but one window of no sort; it was jus' a plain wooden
shutter. De cabins was a long ways off from de big house, close by de
big old spring whar de wash-place was. Dey had long benches for de
wash-tubs to set on, a big old oversize washpot, and you mustn't leave
out 'bout dat big old battlin' block whar dey beat de dirt out of de
clothes. Dem Niggers would sing, and