my
sister's duties of helping mother and chasing the flies from Master's
table, I received very little looking after from any of the family,
therefore necessity compelled me at an early age to look after myself
and rustle my own grub. My earliest recollections are of pushing a chair
in front of me and toddling from one to the other of my Master's family
to get a mouthful to eat like a pet dog, and later on as I became older,
making raids on the garden to satisfy my hunger, much to the damage of
the young onions, watermelons, turnips, sweet potatoes, and other
things I could find to eat. We had to use much caution during these
raids on the garden, because we well knew what we would catch if someone
caught us, but much practice made us experts in escaping undetected.

[Illustration: My Old Plantation Home]

One day when Master and the family went to town mother decided to make
some wine of which she was very fond, accordingly she gathered some
grapes and after pressing them she made some fairly good wine. This she
placed in a demijohn, and this for better security she hid in the
garden, as she thought unknown to anyone, but my brother, sister and
myself had been watching the process with considerable curiosity, which
finally reached such a pitch that there was nothing to it; we must
sample a liquid that looked so good. So Jordan went to the hay loft from
where a good view could be obtained all around, while myself and Sally
busied ourselves in the vineyard. Presently Mother thinking all secure
left the house with the demijohn and proceeded to hide it. Jordan, from
the hay loft, noted that mother never left the garden until she returned
to the house, empty handed, but he was unable to see the exact hiding
place.

It was several days later while passing through the garden that we ran
across the lost demijohn. It did not take us long to discover that its
contents suited our tastes. Sally and Jordan dragged it into a sweet
corn patch, where we were safe from observation. An oyster can was
secured to serve as a glass and the way we attacked that wine was a
caution to the Temperance Workers. And I can assure you we enjoyed
ourselves for a while, but for how long I am unable to tell exactly.
Mother soon missed us but being very busy she could not look for us
until evening, when she started out to look us up, after searching and
calling in vain. She decided to take the dogs to help find us. With
their aid we were soon located,