nusual proceeding, and was done in my honour.
In most cases, when the family got up in the morning, for example, the
wife would put a piece of meat in a frying-pan and put a lump of dough
in a "skillet," as they called it. These utensils would be placed on the
fire, and in ten or fifteen minutes breakfast would be ready. Frequently
the husband would take his bread and meat in his hand and start for the
field, eating as he walked. The mother would sit down in a corner and
eat her breakfast, perhaps from a plate and perhaps directly from the
"skillet" or frying-pan, while the children would eat their portion of
the bread and meat while running about the yard. At certain seasons of
the year, when meat was scarce, it was rarely that the children who were
not old enough or strong enough to work in the fields would have the
luxury of meat.

The breakfast over, and with practically no attention given to the
house, the whole family would, as a general thing, proceed to the
cotton-field. Every child that was large enough to carry a hoe was put
to work, and the baby--for usually there was at least one baby--would be
laid down at the end of the cotton row, so that its mother could give
it a certain amount of attention when she had finished chopping her
row. The noon meal and the supper were taken in much the same way as the
breakfast.

All the days of the family would be spent after much this same routine,
except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the whole family would spent at
least half a day, and often a whole day, in town. The idea in going to
town was, I suppose, to do shopping, but all the shopping that the whole
family had money for could have been attended to in ten minutes by one
person. Still, the whole family remained in town for most of the day,
spending the greater part of the time in standing on the streets, the
women, too often, sitting about somewhere smoking or dipping snuff.
Sunday was usually spent in going to some big meeting. With few
exceptions, I found that the crops were mortgaged in the counties where
I went, and that the most of the coloured farmers were in debt. The
state had not been able to build schoolhouses in the country districts,
and, as a rule, the schools were taught in churches or in log cabins.
More than once, while on my journeys, I found that there was no
provision made in the house used for school purposes for heating the
building during the winter, and consequently a fire had to be built i