i~X~1ai‘e Stories	Page Two	•
(Texa.)		~	81







	“)~ty ai~sy was purty good. to iae, when my father wasn‘t right ‘rowid. B~t he wou1dn~t let her give rie anything to ea but coribread and water and little sweet ‘taters, and jus‘ ‘i~ough of that to keep me alive, I v~as aflus hongry. My mamy had a boy called Trank Adds and a girl called Marie Adds ‚ what she give birth to by her cullud husban‘, but I never got to play with them. Missy worked ~e on the fari~ and there was ‘bout 1.00 acres and fifteen slaves to work tea. The overseer waked us ‘bout three In the morn~a~ and then he worked us jus‘ 10kg as we could. see. if we didn‘t git troi.~d fast ‘r~ough, be chain us to a tree at night with nothl*‘ to eat, and nex‘ day, if we didn‘t go on the ru.n he hit us 39 lIcks with a be%what wt~s ‚ bout three foot long and four inches wide.

	HI wore the bell ~iight end day, and ~y father would chais me to a tr.~e till I *sarly died fromth. cold and bei*1 so hon~ry. }t~y father didn‘ t ~ lie,. in church and my mi s sy ‚ 11ev. d. there a Lord, but I wouldii ‚ t have ‚ lieved her if she try lam me ‚ bout ‘ligi ~ t cause my father t.1l me I wasi‘ t any more the* a dai~n aule. I slep‘ on a chair and tried to res‘ till ay father died, and then I sug all dey, Tcause I knowed I wouldn‘t be treated so mean. When ~t~y took that bell offen me I thinks I in Heaven ‘cause I could ii~$~e down and go to sleep, ~Yhen I did I coulthi‘~ ~ake up for a long time and when I did. wake up Vd be scairt to death I‘d. see *y father With his whip and. that old bell. I~d juiep o~it of bed and run till I give out, for fear he‘d corns back and git ma.