Stories	Two	291.
( Te xae)







~bale of a woman.~ ~ scairt and can‘t say nothin‘, 1cause I can‘t speak

~ng1isb. He buys some more slaves and dey chains us together and marches us up near La Grange ‚ ~n Texas. LLarse Jones done gone on ahead and de overseer marches us . Dat was a awful t Ime ‚ ‚ cau se us am all c hai~d up nnd what ever

one does us all nas to do. If one drinks out of dc strr±am we all drinks, and when one gits tired or sick, de rest has to drag and carry him. When us git to Texas, marbe Jones raise de clebbil •with dat white ~n waat had us on de

~riarch. He git de doctor man and tell de cook to feed us and lets ~is rest up.

	“After ‘while, Marss Jones say to me, ‘Silvia, am y~ married?‘ I tells him I got a man and three chilien back in de old country, but he don‘t under-‘

stand my talk and I has a man give to me. I don‘t bother with dat nigger‘s

name much, he jes‘ 3ob to me. But I fit him good and plenty till de overseer

shakes a blackanake whip over me.

	“Marss Jones and Old Miss finds out ‘bout my cookin‘ and takes me to de big house to cook for dem. De dishes and things was awful queer to me, to

what I been bi‘ung up to use in France. I mostly cooks after dat, but I‘s de
/~i~~L ~
po~erfu~ big w ~ian when I ‚ s young and when dey git s in a tight~ I hoips out.

	•11?ore long Marse Jones tcides to move. He allus say he gwine git where he can‘ t hear he neighbor‘ s e owhorn, and he do, Dere alit‘ t nothin ‚ but woods a~nd grass land, no hoases, ~O roads, no bridges, no neighbors, nothin‘ but

WoOds and wild animals. But he builds a mighty fine house with a stone chimney six foot square at de bottom. r sill was a foot square and de house am made

of loge, but dey splits ~xt twoQinch plank anc~~ puts it cxit~ide de logs, from de grou~~ clean UP to d.e eaves. Dere wasntt flO nails,. but dey whittles out pegs.