it on one side
and some de other. Den one sing out

"'Chickama, Chickama, craney crow,
Went to de well to wash my toe;
When I git back my chicken was gone,
What time, old witch?'

"Den somebody holler out, 'One o'clock' or 'Two o'clock' or any time,
and dem on one side try to cotch dem on de other side.

"When I's young I didn't mind plowin', but I didn't like to ride at
fust, but dey make me larn anyhow. Course, dat white boy and me, us like
most anything what not too much work. Us go down to de watermelon patch
and plug dem melons, den us run hide in de woods and eat watermelon.
Course, dey lots of time dey 'low us to play jis' by ourselves. Us play
one game where us choose sides and den sing:

"'Can, can, candio,
Old man Dandio,
How many men you got?
More'n you're able to cotch.'

"Endurin' de war us git whip many a time for playin' with shells what us
find in de woods. Us heered de cannons shootin' in Lexington and lots of
dem shells drap in de woods.

"What did I think when I seed all dem sojers? I wants to be one, too. I
didn't care what side, I jis' wants a gun and a hoss and be a sojer.
John Morgan, he used to own de hemp factory in Lexington. When young
massa jine Woolford's 11th Kentucky Cavalry, dey come to de place and
halt befo' de big house in de turnpike. Dey have shotguns and blind
bridles on dere hosses, not open bridle like on de race hosses. Dey jis'
in reg'lar clothes but next time dey come through dey in blue uniforms.
All my white folks come back from de war and didn't git kilt. Nobody
ever telt me I's free. I's happy dere and never left dem till 1872. All
de others gone befo' dat, but I gits all I wants and I didn't need no
money. I didn't know what paper money was and one time massa's son give
me a paper dime to git some squab and I didn't know what money was and I
burned it up.

"Dey's jis' one thing I like to do most and dat's eat. Dey allus had
plenty of everything and dey had a big, wooden tray, or trough and dey
put potlicker and cornbread in dat trough and set it under de big locust
tree and all us li'l niggers jis' set 'round and eat and eat. Jis' eat
all us wants. Den when us git full us fall over and go to sleep. Us jis'
git fat and lazy. When us see dat bowl comin', dat bowl call us jis'
like hawgs runnin' to de trough.

"Dey was great on gingerbread and us go for dat. Dey couldn't leave it
in de kitchen or de pantry so old missus git a big tin box and hide