?olk Lore: Stories from Ex—slaves
Page 2.
	“My masser wot~ld. say that Jinmiie had sense, was a good. boy, so 1~isstts~‘wou~ld let inc practice on her organ or her piano in the hou.se. I got pretty good on these, so when I got to be a yot~ng man, I tau.ght lessons on both the reed organ and. the nielo-. dian, then on the piano. I tatight the ru~dinients of rausi~ and. plano 1~or abotit 2b years.

	“When the Yankee sola~iers corne to Spartanthirg it scared rae. They kept telling me that they were not going to hurt nie, but I got a pile of brick—bats and. put thera u~nder the hou~se. I told Mis8u~8 I wasn‘t going to let any of the soldiers ht~rt her. The yankee soldiers did. not botherme. They came all arotind ou.r hou.se, bu.t every one o~ them was ~.tiet and orderly. They took some of Missiis‘ su~~r and. haras, bu.t did not kill any o~ the ~hickens. I told them not to take the sagar, ‘b~it they took it and. the haras anyhow.

	“Mlssu~s told. me that I was free, bat I tola her I was going to 8tay on where I was and protect her until I died. And when i~Lasser died, I grieved ani. grieved abou.t him. I loved. him dearly and. I know he loved me. He was good aM kind to nie ai-. ways. He never whipped. me, not once. I grieve abou~t my masser to this day. Re was a kind gentleman.

	“No, I never married, and I haven‘t got anybociy kin to me now. My brothers all died. and. I ani the only one left. I adopted toux children. I taught them mu~sie and. we got ön pret— ty weil after Missus died.. I stayed with her u.ntil she died.