VII.	• 55
~~i~eseat and went along jus‘ de same. Mist‘ess ailus. f ound me ‚ f o re us go t ba ck home ‚ but s he j us ‚ la ugh ed and sai d:

‘Well, Neal‘s ray little ~/igger anyhow.‘

	“Dem old cord beds was a sight to look at, but dey slept good. Us cyarded lint cotton into bats for mattresses and put ‘ein in a tick what us tacked so it wouldn‘t git lumpy. Us never seed no. iron springs dein days. Dera cords, crisscrosse~ from one side of de bed to de other, was our springs and us had keys to tighten ‘era wid. If us didn‘t tighten ‘em evvy few days dem beds was apt to fell down wid us. De cheers was homemade too and de easiest—settin~ ones had bottoms made out of rye splits. Dem oak~-split cheers was all right, and some— times us used cane to bottom de cheersbut evvybody laked to

set in dem cheers ~iat haci bottoms wove out of rye splits. tt~~rster had äne of dem ol& cotton gins wi~at did~n‘t1
—rn---. ~ ~




have ri~ engines, It was ~iked by mules. Dem old mui€~s was hitched to a long pole ~that dey pulled ‘round and ‘round to make de gin do its wuk. Dey lied some gins in dem days what had treadi~jliS for th~ mules to w8lk In. Dem old treadrillis looked sorter lak stairs, but most of ‘ein was turned by long poles what de mules pulled. You had to feed de cotton by hand to dem old gins end you SilO had to be keErful or you v~s gwine to lose a hand and maybe a airm. You had tc jump in dem o~d cotton presses and treed de cotton down by hand. It tuk most all day long to gin two bales of cottn and if dere w~-s ti~ree bales to be ginned ~is tad. to wuk