They took ma and pa off
keep the Yankees from stealing then. Miss Patsy took keer me. When ma
and pa come home I didn't know them a tall. They say when they come back
they went to Louziana, then 'bout close to Monticello in dis state, then
last year they run 'em to Texas.
"Pa was jus' a farmer. Gran'ma lived down in the quarters and kept my
sisters. I'd start to see 'em. Old gander run me. Sometimes the geese
get me down and flog me wid their wings. One day I climbed up and peeped
through a crack. I seen a lot of folks chopping cotton. It looked so
easy. They was singing.
"Betsy done the milking. I'd sit or stand 'round till the butter come.
She ax me which I wanted, milk or butter. I'd tell her. She put a little
sugar on my buttered bread. It was so good I thought Sometimes she'd
fill my cup up with fresh churned milk.
"I et in the kitchen; the white folks et in the dining-room. I slep' in
granny's house, in granny's bed, in the back yard. Granny's name was
'Aunt' Hannah. She was real old and the boss cook on our place. She
learnt all the girls on our place how to cook. Kept one or two helping
her all the time. It was her part to make them wash their faces every
morning soon as they started a fire and keep their hands clean all the
time er cooking.
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