Stories :~~rom EL-Slaves (Gus Peaster)
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Den de ~a1s charmed us wid honeysuckle and rose petals hid in dere bosoms. Now de gals goes to de ten cent sto‘ and buy8 cheap per~fume. In dein days dey dried cheneyberries (ctiinaberries) and painted dem arid wo‘ dem on a string around ~dex~ necks to charm us.

	.	‘~When us very little, ma say at night when she want us to go to bed and we be playir~ marbles, ‘setter come on in de house or Raw Head and Bloody Bones ‘11 git you. From ôen on I is seed 8pOOkS.

	ttOur work song was, ‘John Henry was a man; he worked all over dis town‘. Dey still uses dat song. In slavery some holler when dey be in de fleld like owls; some like crows; and some like pea..fowls. Missus had de purtiest pea—fowls in de whole country. Don‘t see nonč now, but dar ain‘t nothing dat flies purtier.

	“Me arid Wade Carlisle was ‘possum hunting one &ight in de fall when de dogs bedded a ‘possum in a grave. We dug down and got de ‘possum. He wasdat big and fat and his hair was so shiny and purty dat we ‘lowed dat he dę finest ‘possum we had cotch dat Lau.

	~J~st den, Wa4e struck de box dat de dead man was a-lying in. Jest as he did dat ‚ a light jumped out ‘n dat grave right in fro rit of us and all over Wade ‚ s sh ovel • Our t~c o dogs tuck and run and holler and stick dey tails betwix dey legs 1 ike s omebody a-wh ipp in~ dem. . Dein dogs never st opped running and hewling ttill dey ~eached home, me and Wade right behind dem. ~ Wade had dat ‚ possum in his hand. Dat light now and den jump right in.front of us.