They'd paid
money to git 'im and money to keep 'im and they couldn't 'ford to kill
'em up. When they couldn't manage them they sold them and got their
money out of them.
"The white people started to Texas with the colored folks near the end
of the war and got as far as El Dorado. Word come to 'em that freedom
had come and they turned back.
"A paterole come in one night before freedom and asked for a drink of
water. He said he was thirsty. He had a rubber thing on and drank two or
three buckets of water. His rubber bag swelled up and made his head or
the thing that looked like his head under the hood grow taller. Instead
of gettin' 'fraid, mother threw a shovelful of hot ashes on him and I'll
tell you he lit out from there and never did come back no more.
"Right after the war my folks went to work on the farm. They hired out
by the month. [HW: My father] didn't never say how much he got. When
they had a settlement at the end of the year, the boss said his wages
didn't amount to nothing because his living took it up. Said he had ate
it all up. After that, he took my mother's advice and took up part of
his wages in a cow and so on, and then he'd always have something to
show for his work at the end of the year when it come settling up time.
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