. I was a Christian girl.

"Frank Sampson was his name. It rained the day we married. I got my
feet wet. My husband brought me home and then he turned 'round and
went back to where the wedding was. They had a reception, and they
danced and had a good time. Sampson could dance, too, but I didn't. A
little before day, he come back and said to me--I was layin' in the
middle of the bed--'Git over.' I called to mother and told her he
wanted to git in the bed with me. She said, 'Well, let him git in.
He's yo'r husband now.'

"Frank Sampson and me lived together about twenty years before he got
killed, and then I married Andrew Jackson. He had children and
grandchildren. I don't know what was the matter with old man Jackson.
He was head deacon of the church. We only stayed together a year or
more.

"I have been single ever since 1923, jus' bumming 'round white folks
and tryin' to work for them and makin' them give me somethin' to eat.
I ain't been tryin' to fin' no man. When I can't fin' no cookin' and
washin' and ironin' to do, I used to farm. I can't farm now, and
'course I can't git no work to do to amount to nothin'. They say I'm
too old to work.

"The Welfare helps me. Don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for them. I
git some commodities too, but I don't git any wood. Some people says
they pay house rent, but they never paid none of mine. I had to go to
Marianna and git my application straight before I could git any help.
They charged me half a dollar to fix out the application. The Welfare
wanted to know how I got the money to pay for the application if I
didn't have money to live on. I had to git it, and I had to git the
money to go to Marianna, too. If I hadn't, I never would have got no
help.

Husband's Death

"I told you my first husband got killed. The mule run away with his
plow and throwed him a summerset. His head was where his heels should
have been, he said, and the mule dragged him. His chest was crushed,
and mashed. His face was cut and dirtied. He lived nine days and a
half after he was hurt and couldn't eat one grain of rice. I never
left his bedside 'cept to cook a little broth for him. That's all he
would eat--just a little broth.

"He said to his friend, 'See this little woman of mine? I hate to
leave her. She's just such a good little woman. She ain't got no
business in this world without a husband.'

"And his friend said to him, 'Well, you might as well make up your
mind you got to leave h