de middle of de floor and
takes off de lid, and mammy say: 'Oh! Let's see what we has!' She begin
to empty de pot and to count de money. She tell us to watch de door and
see dat nobody got in, 'cause she not at home!

"She say de money 'mount to $5,700, and she swear us not to say nothin'
'bout findin' it. She would see what she could find out 'bout it. Weeks
after dat, she tell us a big white friend tell her he hear a friend of
his buried some money and went to war widout tellin' anybody where it
was. Maybe he was killed and dat all we ever hear.

"My mammy kept it and we all work on just de same and she buy these two
lots on Senate Street. She build de two-story house here at 924, where
you sittin' now, and de cottage nex' door. She always had rent money
comin' in ever since. By and by she die, after my Indian pappy go 'way
and never come back. Then all de chillun die, 'ceptin' me.

"I am so happy dat I is able to spend my old days in a sort of ease,
after strugglin' most of my young life and gittin' no learnin' at
school, dat I sometimes sing my mammy's old song, runnin' somethin' lak
dis:

'Possum up de simmon tree
Sparrow on de ground
'Possum throw de 'simmons down
Sparrow shake them 'round'."

=Project#-1655=
=Phoebe Faucette=
=Hampton County=

=Approx. 416 words=

=MAMIE RILEY=

=Ex-Slave=

"Aunt Mamie's" hair is entirely white. She lives in a neat duplex brick
house with one of her husband's relatives, a younger woman who is a cook
for a well established family in Estill, S.C. When questioned about the
times before the war, she replied:

"Yes'm, I kin tell you 'bout slav'ry time, 'cause I is one myself. I
don' remember how old I is. But I remember when de Yankees come through
I bin 'bout so high. (She put her hand out about 3-1/2 feet from the
floor.) We lived on Mr. Henry Solomons' place--a big place. Mr. Henry
Solomons had a plenty of people--three rows of house, or four.

"When de Yankees come through Mr. Solomons' place I wuz right dere. We
wuz at our house in de street. I see it all. My ma tell me to run; but I
ain't think they'd hurt me. I see 'em come down de street--all of 'em on
horses. Oo--h, dey wuz a heap of 'em! I couldn't count 'em. My daddy run
to de woods--he an' de other men. Dey ran right to de graveyard. Too
mucha bush been dere. You couldn't see 'em. Stay in de woods three days.

"Dey went to my daddy's house an' take all. My daddy ran. My mother