-room, where all the clothes was put away when they
was finished. When any body needed clothes mistis would go to the
press-room an' get 'em.

"During the war mistis had one room all fixed up to take care of sick
soldiers. They would come stragglin' in, all sick or shot, an' sometimes
we had a room full of 'em. Mistis had one young boy to do nothin' but
look after 'em and many's the night I got up and helt the candle for 'em
to see the way to the room.

"Oh my Gawd, I saw plenty wounded soldiers. We was right on the road to
Brightsboro, and plenty of 'em pass by. That Confed'rate war was the
terriblest, awfullest thing.

"Nobody but me knowed where mistis buried her gold money and finger
rings and ear-rings and breat-pins. [TR: breast-pins?] I helt the candle
then, too. Mistis and marster, (he was home then) an' me went down back
of the grape arbor to the garden-house. Marster took up some planks, an'
dug a hole like a grabe and buried a big iron box with all them things
in it; then he put back the planks. Nobody ever found 'em, and after the
war was over we went and got 'em.

"Yes, ma'am, everybody did they own work. De cook cooked, and the
washer, she didn't iron no clothes. De ironer did that. De housemaid
cleaned up, and nurse tended the chilrun. Then they was butlers and
coachmen. Oh, they was a plenty of us to do eve'ything.

"We didn't have a stove, just a big fire place, and big oven on both
sides, and long-handle spiders. When we was fixin' up to go to Camp
Meeting to the White Oak Camp meeting grounds, they cooked chickens and
roasted pigs, and put apples in they mouth and a lot of other food--good
food too. De food peoples eat these days, you couldn't have got _nobody_
to eat. Camp Meetin' was always in August and September. It was a good
Methodis' meetin', and eve'ybody got religion. Sometimes a preacher
would come to visit at the house, an' all the slaves was called an' he
prayed for 'em. Sometimes the young ones would laugh, an' then marster
would have 'em whipped.

"My young mistis had a sister older than her. She married Mr. Artie
Boyd, an' they had a big weddin' but she loved her home and her mother
and father so much she wouldn't leave home. She just stayed on living
there. When her baby come she died, and I tell you, ma'am, her fun'al
was most like a weddin', with so many people an' so many flowers. All
the people from the plantashun came to the house, an' the wimmen had
they babies in they arm