e time.

They was about nine white children on the place and Mary had to watch
out for them 'cause the mother was dead.

That Mary gal seen to it that we children got the best food on the
place, the fattest possum and the hottest fish. When the possum was
all browned, and the sweet 'taters swimming in the good mellow gravy,
then she call us for to eat. Um-um-h! That was tasty eating!

And from the garden come the vegetables like okra and corn and onions
that Mary would mix all up in the soup pot with lean meats. That would
rest kinder easy on the stomach too, 'specially if they was a bit of
red squirrel meats in with the stew!

Major Bee say it wasn't good for me to learn reading and writing.
Reckoned it would ruin me. But they sent me to Sunday School.
Sometimes. Wasn't many of the slaves knew how to read the Bible
either, but they all got the religion anyhow. I believed in it then
and I still do.

That religion I got in them way back days is still with me. And it
ain't this pie crust religion such as the folks are getting these
days. The old time religion had some filling between the crusts,
wasn't so many empty words like they is today.

They was haunts in them way back days, too. How's I know? 'Cause I
stayed right with the haunts one whole night when I get caught in a
norther when the Major sends me to another plantation for to bring
back some cows he's bargained for. That was a cold night and a
frightful one.

The blizzard overtook me and it was dark on the way. I come to an old
gin house that everybody said was the hauntinest place in all the
county. But I went in account of the cold and then when the noises
started I was just too scared to move, so there I stood in the corner,
all the time 'til morning come.

There was nobody I could see, but I could hear peoples feet a-tromping
and stomping around the room and they go up and down the stairway like
they was running a race.

Sometimes the noises would be right by my side and I would feel like a
hot wind passing around me, and lights would flash all over the room.
Nobody could I see. When daylight come I went through that door
without looking back and headed for the plantation, forgetting all
about the cows that Major Bee sent me for to get.

When I tells them about the thing, Mary she won't let the old Major
scold, and she fixes me up with some warm foods and I is all right
again. But I stays me away from that gin place, even in the daylight,
accoun