igher-up
folks?' Dat meant if you can't sarve God here below, how is you gwine to
git along wid him if you gits to Heben? Our preacher told us to sarve
both our marsters. De fust Marster was God, he said, and de other one
was our white marster.

"I ain't never been inside no courtroom and don't never 'spect to be
dar, 'cause, missy, I don't mind nobody's business but my own, and dat's
all I can do.

"No Mam, I don't never git much sick. I had a bad old haid cold last
winter, but I stopped dat wid coal oil and by breathin' in smoke from
scorched leather. Light'ood splinter tea is helpful when I has a chist
cold. Salts ain't de best thing for old folks to be doctored wid. I
takes common cookin' soda sweetened wid a little sugar. Dem is old-time
doses from way back in de old days, and I still use 'em all.

"Durin' of de war time, soda and salt was both hard to git. Dey biled
down de dirt from under old smokehouses to git salt, and soda was made
out of burnt corncobs. You would be s'prised to see what good cookin'
could be done wid dat old corncob soda.

"Us wukked for Mr. Green Hubbard de fust year us left de old plantation,
but he wouldn't pay us so us left him and rented some land to farm. Den
I went to wuk for Mr. Stephens and stayed wid him 25 years. He was one
of de owners of de Georgy Railroad and I used to drive for him when he
went to 'Gusty (Augusta) to dem board meetin's. He had one of dem
old-time gins what run by mule power, and us sho' did gin a heap of
cotton. Lots of times he had us to haul it all de way to 'Gusty on dem
wagons. Mr. Stephens' place was at Crawford, Georgy.

"Me and my gal runned away to git married. If you please, Mam, come
inside and look at her pitcher. Ain't she a fine lookin' gal? Well, she
was jus' as good as she looks. I keeps her pitcher hangin' right over my
bed so as I can look at her all de time." The small room was tidy and
clean. In one corner a narrow, single bed, neatly made, stood beneath
the picture of Benny's wife, Mary. The picture showed a young woman
dressed in white in the style of the period when tight waists and
enormous puffed sleeves were in vogue. An old washstand supporting a
huge mirror, a small table, evidently used as a dining table, two
chairs, a small cupboard filled with dishes, and a small, wood-burning
stove completed the furnishings of the room. Back on the porch again,
Benny resumed the story of his marriage.

"Her daddy wouldn't 'gree for us to gi