I recken he would. When he
got drunk old missus have him on the bed an' she set by him till he
sober up. Miss Karoline good as ever drawed a breath to colored and
white.
"My grandma, mother's ma, was a light sorter woman. The balance of my
kin was pure nigger.
"I kin for a fact recollect a right smart about the war. Papa went off
to war wid Jack Hoskins. He was goin' to be his waitin' man. He stayed a
good while fore he got home. Jack Hoskins got kilt fore he et breakfast
one mornin'. That all I heard him say. I recken he helped bury him but I
never heard em say.
"The plainest thing I recollect was a big drove of the Yankee
soldiers--some ridin', some walkin'--come up to the moster's house. He
was sorter old man. He was settin' in the gallery. He lived in a big log
house. He was readin' the paper. He throwed back his head and was dead.
Jes' scared to death. They said that was what the matter. In spite of
that they come down there and ordered us up to the house. All the
niggers scared to death not to go. There lay old Moster Jim stretched
dead in his chair. They was backed up to the smoke house door and the
horses makin' splinters of the door. It was three planks thick, crossed
one another and bradded together wid iron nails.
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