ld about it because all the young bucks
called me "Hand" after that for a long time.

Old Bab kept on trying to work his conjure with the old niggers, but
the young ones didn't pay him much mind cause they was hearing about
the Gospel and de Lord Jesus Christ. We was all free then, and we
could go and come without a pass, and they was always some kind of
church meeting going on close enough to go to. Our niggers never did
hear about de Lord Jesus until after we was free, but lots of niggers
on de other plantations had masters that told them all about him, and
some of dem niggers was pretty good at preaching. Then de good church
people in de North was sending white preachers amongst us all the time
too. Most of de young niggers was Christians by that time.

One day old Bab was hoeing in a field and got in a squabble about
something with a young gal name Polly, same name as his wife. After
while he git so mad he reach up with his fingers and wet them on his
tongue and point straight up and say, "Now you got a trick on you!
Dere's a heavy trick on you now! Iffen you don't change your mind you
going pass on before de sun go down!"

All de young niggers looked like they want to giggle but afraid to,
and the old ones start begging old Bab to take the trick off, but that
Polly git her dander up and take in after him with a hoe!

She knocked him down, and he jest laid there kicking his feet in the
air and trying to keep her from hitting him in the head!

Well, that kind of broke up Bab's charm, so he set out to be a
preacher. The Northern whites was paying some of the Negro preachers,
so he tried to be one too. He didn't know nothing about de Bible but
to shout loud, so the preacher board at Red Mound never would give him
a paper to preach. Then he had to go back to tricking and trancing
again.

One day he come in at dinner and told his wife to git him something to
eat. She told him they aint nothing but some buttermilk, and he says
give me some of that. He hollered around till she fix him a big ash
cake and he ate that and she made him another and he ate that. Then he
drunk the rest of de gallon of buttermilk and went out and laid down
on a tobacco scaffold in de yard and nearly died.

After while he jest stiffened out and looked like he was dead, and
nobody couldn't wake him up. 'Bout forty niggers gathered round and
tried but it done no good. Old mammy Polly got scared and sent after
the white judge, old Squire Wilso