square up dere, en say dat de man set her up in de wagon
en took her to Georgetown wid him. Sold her right dere on de block. Oh,
I hear dem talkin bout de sellin block plenty times. Pa say, when he see
dem carry his mammy off from dere, it make he heart swell in his breast.

"Yes'um, I hear my father talk bout how dey would shoot de great big
bomb guns in slavery time. Seems like, he say dat de shootin fuss been
come from Fort Sumter. Oh, my Lord, I hear talk dat de people could hear
dem guns roarin all bout dis here country. I know dat word been true
cause I hear my parents en de olden people speak bout dat right dere
fore we chillun. Say, when dey would feel dat rumblin noise, de people
would be so scared. Didn' know what was gwine happen. Cose I speak bout
what I catch cause de olden people never didn' allow dey chillun to set
en hear dem talk no time. No, mam, de olden people was mighty careful of
de words dey let slip dey lips.

"Oh, we chillun would have de most fun dere ever was romancin (roaming)
dem woods in dat day en time. I used to think it was de nicest thing dat
I been know bout to go down in de woods side one of dem shady branch en
get a cup of right cool water to drink out de stream. I tell you, I
thought dat was de sweetest water I is ever swallowed. Den we chillun
used to go out in de woods wid de crowd en get dese big oak leaves en
hickory leaves en make hats. Would use dese here long pine needles en
thorns for de pins dat we would pick up somewhe' dere in de woods. En we
would dress de hats wid all kind of wild flowers en moss dat we been
find scatter bout in de woods, too. Oh, yes'um, we thought dey was de
prettiest kind of bonnets. Den we would get some of dese green saplin
out de woods often times to make us a ridin horse wid en would cut down
a good size pine another time en make a flyin mare to ride on. Yes, mam,
dat what we would call it. Well, when we would have a mind to make one
of dem flyin mare, we chillun would slip a ax to de woods wid us en chop
down a nice little pine tree, so as dere would be a good big stump left
in de ground. Den we would chisel de top of de stump down all round de
edges till we had us a right sharp peg settin up in de middle of de
stump. After dat was fixed, we would cut us another pole a little bit
smaller den dat one en bore a hole in de middle of it to make it set
down on dat peg. Oh, my Lord, one of us chillun would get on dis end en
dere another one would get