5tories Prom Ex..Slaves
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13
	-	“Po1~ allus crying iaard tunes dese days, ain‘t no hard. times flow 1ii~e it was atter Sherman went through yorkville. My ma arid oa give me ash cake arid ‘simrnon beer to eat ~or days atter dat. White folks never had. no mo‘, not till a new crop was ~row‘d. Dat year de

~	~‘easoris was good arid gardens done well. Till den us nearly starved

~	:~rid v~e never had. rio easy time ~ittiri~ garden seed to plant, neither. AYes sir, if l‘s handy to locust I makes 1o~ust beer; den

~	ii I‘s h~ridy to ‘sinunons, why ciet‘i I makes ‘simmon beer. Now it‘s jes‘

~	~or to pass de time dat us does dat. But swine back to de war; den it

~	v~as for necessity. Dese young‘uns now don‘t know what hard times is.

~	Dey all has bread and meat anu co±‘wee, no matter bow poor dey is. I~

.	dey had to live :~or days arid weeks on ash cake and ‚ sirrLmorl beer, as us did den, arid work and wait on a crop vvid nothin~ but dat in deir

~	bellies; den dey could grumble hard times. I ailus tells ‘em to shut

~	up when dey starts anything like dat around me.

~f	“When dat crop come along, we sho did ~al1 in and save
~
~	. all us could for de next year. Every kind of seed and pod dat grow‘d

.‚	‘:~f~ saved and dried for next spring or tall planting. Atter folks is once had. deir belly aching and gro~1ing Lor victuals, dey ain‘t never ~wine to throw no rations anL things away no mo‘. Young £olks is power±‘ul wasteful, but if sornettïing come along to break up deir good time like it did to us when dat man Sherman held everything up, dey

.	sho will take heed, ana. dey won~t grumble ‘bout it neither, cause dey won‘t have no time to grumble.

‘tThings passes over cjuicker sometimes dan we figures out

~	dat dey will. Everything, rio matter how good it be or how hard, pass-.

-	es over. Dey jes‘~does lIke dat. So dem Yankees went on somewhars, I never kriow‘d whar, and. everything round Yorkville was powerThl relieved.