anyhow; they got tired of eatin' the same thing all the time.
Hurt would whip them for it. Wouldn't let the overseer whip them. Whip
them hisself. 'Fraid the overseer wouldn't give them enough. They
never could find my grandfather's meat. That was Grandfather William
Down. They couldn't find his meat because he kept it hidden in a hole
in the ground. It was under the floor of the cabin.

"Old Myers made this young man rassle with him. The young fellow
didn't want to rassle with him; he said Myers was too old. Myers
wasn't my father; he was my mother's first husband. The young man
threw him. Myers wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to rassle
again. The young man didn't want to rassle again. But Myers made him.
And the second time, the young man threw him so hard that he broke his
collar-bone. My mother was in a family way at the time. He lived about
a week after that, and died before the baby was born.

"My mother's second husband was named Fred Williams, and he was my
father. All this was in slavery times. I am his oldest child. He
raised all his children and all his stepchildren too. He and my mother
lived together for over forty years, until she was more than seventy.
He was much younger than she was--just eighteen years old when he
married her. And she was a woman with five children. But she was a
real wife to him. Him and her would fight, too. She was jealous of
him. Wouldn't be none of that with me. Honey, when you hit me once,
I'm gone. Ain't no beatin' on me and then sleepin' in the same bed
with you. But they fit and then they lived together right on. No
matter what happened, his clean clothes were ready whenever he got
ready to go out of the house--even if it was just to go to work. His
meals were ready whenever he got ready to eat. They were happy
together till she died.

"But when she died, he killed hisself courtin'. He was a young
preacher. He died of pneumonia. He was visiting his daughter and got
exposed to the weather and didn't take care of hisself.

"Right after the War, I was hired as a half-a-hand. After that I got
larger and was hired as a whole hand, me and the oldest girl. I worked
on one farm and then another for years. I married the first time when
I was fifteen years old. That was almost right after slave time. Four
couples of us were married at the same time. They lived close to me. I
didn't want my husband to git in the bed with me when I married the
first time. I didn't have no sense