Ex-‘slave Stories	Page Two	72
( Texas)






flow. We had cornbread and blackeye1 peas and. bear~s and sorghum ‘lasses. Old master give us our rations and i±fen dat didn‘t fill us up, we jus‘ went lank.

Sometimes we had possum azid rabbits and fish, Iffen we cotched dem on Sunday. I seed Old. Missy parch coffee in a skittle, and it good coffee, too. We couldn‘t go to the store and buy things, ‘cause they warn‘t no stores hard].j.

	“When dey‘s hoein‘ cotton or corn, everybody has to keep up with de driver ‚ not hurry so fast ‚ but workint st eady. Some de women what had suckin‘ babies left dem in de shade while dey worked, and one time a big, bald eagle flew do wn by one dem babi es and p icked it up and fi ew away with i• De mama couldn‘t git it and. we never heared of dat baby ‘gain.

	“I ‘meiLber when we come from Mobile to Texas. By time we heared de Yankees was comin‘ dey got !~ll dere gold together and Miss Jane called me and give me a whole sack of pure gold and. silver, and. say bury it in de orch~.rd. I sho‘ was scart, but I done what she said. Dey was more gold. in a bit desk, and de Yanks pulled de top of dat desk and got de gold. Miss Jane had a purty gold ring on her finger and de captain yanked it off. I said, tMiss Jane, is dey gwine give you ring back?‘ All she said. was ‚ ‚ Shet ~ou mouth,‘ and tht ‚ s what I did..

	t, :r~t night dey digs up de buried gold and we left oat . We ‘ t raveled at n ight mid rested in da~yt 1mo • We was scart t o make a fi x‘s . Dat was awful times. All on~ de ww to de Missiesip‘ ‚ we seed dead men layi~‘ everywhere ‚ black and white.

	“Thile weta waitin‘ to go C?OBS de Mississip‘ a white man come up and asks Marse Barrow how many niggers he ha, ani cmnt a us a].].. While we‘ s wait int de g~.tns ~gins to go boom, boos, and you cou~hear all dat noise, it so close.