stop right dere. A
low fence is easier to git over than a high one. Say little and you
ain't gwine to have a heap to 'splain hereafter. Dere is a plenty of
persons dat has lost deir heads by not lettin' deir tongues rest.
Marster Sam Louie is dead now. He can't disturb nobody in his grave. He
had his faults and done many things wrong but show me dat person what
don't mis-step sometimes. All of us, both white and black, is prone to
step aside now and then. To tell de truth, old marster never knowed what
Sunday was. Everybody on de plantation worked on dat day as same as any
other day.

"But Boss, if my old marster was rough and hard and break de Sabbath and
all dat, he was no worser than what young white folks and niggers is
dese days. You can see them any time, floppin' 'bout in dese
automobiles, a drinkin' and a carryin' on. Sich stuff is abomination in
de sight of a decent person, much less dat One up yonder. (He pointed
upward).

"I's gwine to tell you boss, dat slavery time was better for de average
nigger than what they is gittin' now. Folks say dat slavery was wrong
and I 'spose it was, but to be poor like a heap of niggers is now, is de
worse thing dat has ever come upon them, I thinks. Dis gittin' something
wrong, ain't right. De North had no business sellin' niggers to de South
and de South had no business buyin' them from de North and makin' slaves
of them. Everything went on pretty nice for awhile, then de North got
jealous of de South and de South got 'spicious of de North. I believes
dat if you can't go over and you can't go under, then you should try to
go 'round. If de big men up North and here in de South had been good
'nough and smart 'nough, they might could a gone 'round dat terrible
Civil War. I believes dat.

"I marry Lucy Nelson when I was 'bout thirty years old. She was a bright
skin nigger, much brighter than I is. She was high tempered and high
spirited, too. She was sho' smart, and de best cook I has ever seen.
Just plain corn bread, dat she cooked in de hot ashes of de fireplace,
taste sweeter and better than de cake you buy now. But de least thing
would git her temper 'roused. I has knowed her to complain wid de old
hound dog us had, 'cause he didn't run some rabbits out de woods for me
to shoot. Fuss wid de cats, 'cause they didn't ketch de mouses in de
house. Quarrel wid de hens, 'cause they eat, cackled, scratched and
wallowed holes in de yard and wouldn't lay. Told de old rooster many