ble) got de game. Dey's jes' sporty to dat. Never had nothing but
greenbacks den. Fifteen cents and ten cents pieces and twenty-five and
as high as fifty cents pieces was paper in dem times.

"Dey larn't us a song: 'If I had ole Abe Lincoln all over dis world, but
I know I can't whip him; but I fight him 'till I dies'. Dey low'd, 'we
freeded you alls'.

"Another song was: 'Salvation free fer all mankind; Salvation free fer
all mankind'. I was glad er all salvation. 'Salvation free fer me'; got
up dat song furs' on a moonlight night, and us sing it all night long,
going from house to house.

"'Motherless chilluns sees hard times; just ain't got no whar to go;
goes from do' to do',' dat's de song dey got up. I doesn't know whar it
come from. 'Nother one was: 'When de sun refuse to shine; Lord I wants
to be in de number, when de sun refuse to shine. If I had a po' mother
she gone on befo', Lord I promise her I would meet her when de saints go
marching in.' Dat's what lots people is still trying to do.

"We sot mud baskets fer cat fish; tie grapevines on dem and put dem in
de river. We cotch some wid hooks. I went seining many times and I set
nets; bought seins and made de nets. Pull up sein after a rain and have
seventy-five or eighty fish; sometimes have none. Peter Mills made our
cat fish stew and cooked ash-cake bread fer us to eat it wid. Water come
to our necks while we seining and we git de fish while we drifting down
stream.

"We wear cotton clothes in hot weather, dyed wid red dirt or mulberries,
or stained wid green wa'nuts--dat is de hulls. Never had much exchanging
of clothes in cold weather. In dat day us haul wood eight or ten feet
long. De log houses was daubed wid mud and dey was warm. Fire last all
night from dat big wood and de house didn't git cold. We had heavy shoes
wid wood soles; heavy cotton socks which was wore de whole year through
de cold weather, but we allus go barefeeted in hot weather. Young boys
thirteen to fifteen years old had de foots measured. When tracks be seed
in de wa'melon patch, dey was called up, and if de measurements of dere
tracks fitted de ones in de wa'melon patch, dat was de guilty nigger. I
'clar, you had to talk purty den. When I go in de wa'melon patch, I git
de old missus to say fer me to go; den I could eat and nothing was said
'bout it.

"Sunday clothes was died red fer de gals; boys wore de same. We made de
gals' hoops out'n grape vines. Dey give us a dime, if de