in dat he ort ter be 'shamed of talkin' ter a old
man like dat. Furder more, she tells dem dat iffen dat's de way dey're
gwine ter git her freedom, she don't want it at all. Wid dat mammy
takes Mis' Betsy upstairs whar de Yankees won't be a-starin' at her.

"One of de Yankees fin's me an' axes me how many pairs of shoes I gits
a year. I tells him dat I gits one pair. Den he axes me what I wears in
de summertime. When I tells him dat I ain't wear nothin' but a shirt,
an' dat I goes barefooted in de summer, he cusses awful an' he damns my
marster.

"Mammy said dat dey tol' her an' pappy dat dey'd git some land an' a
mule iffen dey wus freed. You see dey tried ter turn de slaves agin
dere marsters.

"At de surrender most of de niggers left, but me an' my family stayed
fer wages. We ain't really had as good as we done before de war, an'
'cides dat we has ter worry about how we're goin' ter live.

"We stayed dar at de same place, de ole Zola May place, on de Wake an'
Johnston line, fer four or five years an' I went to school a little
bit. Atter we left dar we went to Mr. John H. Wilson's place near
Wilson's Mill. It wus at de end of dese ten years dat mammy wus gwine
ter whup Bill, my brother, so he went off ter Louisanna an' we ain't
seed him since.

"At de end of dis time I married Barney Richardson an' we had three
chilluns, who am all dead now. We worked an' slaved till we bought dis
house an' paid fer it, den in 1918 he died. I married John Haskins de
second time but he's been dead now fer about ten years.

"I told you dat I owned dis shack but you see how de top has come ter
pieces an' de steps has fell down. I'm behind in my taxes too so I'm
'spectin' dem ter take it away from me at any time. I has been
dependent on de white folks now fer four or five years. De county gives
me two dollars a month an' de white folks gives me a little now an'
den. You see dat I can't straighten up so I can't work in five years.

"Drawin' water out of dat well wid no curb shore bothers me too, come
an' look at it."

I looked at the well and in the well and was horrified. There was no
curbing at all, only a few rotting planks laid over the hole, and on
these she stood right over the water while she drew up the heavy bucket
with a small rope and without the aid of a wheel. "I reckin dat some of
dese days somebody will draw me outen dis well," she continued briskly.
"Anyhow hit don't matter much.

"You see dat little patch, wid d