d finally they elected J. P. He was a good pastor, but
he hurrahed the people and they didn't like that.
"Reuben White didn't come back when they buried him the second time.
They were letting the coffin down in the grave when they buried him
the first time, and he knocked at it on the inside, knock, knock.
(Here the old lady rapped on the doorsill with her knuckles--ed.) They
drew that coffin up and opened it. How do I know? I was there. I heard
it and seen it. They took him out of the coffin and carried him back
to his home in the ambulance. He lived about three or four years after
that.
"I had a member to die in my order and they sent for the undertaker
and he found that she wasn't dead. They took her down to the
undertaker's shop, and found that she wasn't dead. They said she died
after they embalmed her. That lodge work ran my nerves down. I was in
the Tabernacle then. Goodrich and Dubisson was the undertakers that
had the body. Lucy Tucker was the woman. I guess she died when they
got her to the shop. They say the undertaker cut on her before he
found that she was dead.
"I don't know how many grades I finished in school. I guess it was
about three altogether. I had to git up and go to work then. [TR: This
paragraph was marked with a line on the right; possibly it is the
paragraph to be inserted on the previous page.]
"After I quit school, I nursed mighty nigh all the time. I cooked for
Governor Rector part of the time. I cooked for Dr. Lincoln Woodruff. I
cooked for a whole lot of white folks. I washed and ironed for them
Anthonys down here. She like to had a fit over me the last time she
saw me. She wanted me to come back, but my hand couldn't stand it. I
cooked for Governor Rose's wife. That's been a long time back. I
wouldn't 'low nobody to come in the kitchen when I was working. I
would say, 'You goin' to come in this kitchen, I'll have to git out.'
The Governor was awful good to me. They say he kicked the res' of them
out. I scalded his little grandson once. I picked up the teakettle.
Didn't know it had water in it and it slipped and splashed water over
the little boy's hand. If'n it had been hot as it ought to have been,
it would have burnt him bad. He went out of that kitchen hollerin'.
The Governor didn't say nothin' 'cept, 'Ella, please don't do it
again.' I said, 'I guess that'll teach him to stay out of that kitchen
now.' I was boss of that kitchen when I worked there.
"We took the lock off th
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