~TtJLIA LARKEN
~	~ A~e ~.

	Julia‘s small three-room cottage is a servant house at the rear of a white family‘s residence. A sate through an old-fashioned picket fence led into a spacious yard~ where dense shade from tall pecan trees was particularly in‘.. viting after a long walk in the sweltering heat.

	.	An aged mulatto woman was seated on the narrow porch. lier straight white hair was arranged in braids, and. her faded print dress and. enorinouscilecked apron were clean and. carefully patched. A pair ot dark colored tennis shoes completed her costume. She arose, tall and erect, to greet her visitor. “Teasuin, dis here‘s J~u1ia Larken,“ she saidwith a friendly smile. “Come right in, Chile, and set here and rest on nq nice cool porch. I knows you‘s tired plumb out. You shouldn‘t be out walkin‘ ‘round in dis hot sun - It ain‘t good for you. It‘ll niake you have brain fever ‘fore you knows it.“

	When asked for the story of her life, J~ulia replied: “Lordy, Chile, did you do all dis walkin‘ ‚ hot as it is today, jus‘ to hear dis old Nigger talk? Well, jus‘ let me tell you, dem days back yonder ‘fore de war was de happiest time of my whole life.

	“I don‘t know much ‘bout slavery, ‘cause I was jus‘ a little gal when de war ended. I was borned in war times on Marse Payton Sails‘ plantation, way off down in Lincoln County.
j• :~Q~34
35