wife, was mighty good, too. Does any us chillen git
hurt or scratched, she fix us up and give us a hug. I knows dey has two
boys and a gal, and dey comes to see me long time after I's free and
brings dere own chillen. But my mem'ry am sort of foggy-like and I can't
'member dere names now.

"De only work Papa Day 'lows us chillen do am pick de boles close to de
ground, and dat mostly fun, and us ride to de house on de wagon what
takes de pickin' at night. Papa Day don't make he cullud folks work
Saturdays and Sundays and dey can visit round on other plantations, and
he say nobody better bother us none, either.

"One time us chillen playin' out in de woods and seed two old men what
look like wild men, sho' 'nough. Dey has long hair all over de face and
dere shirts all bloody. Us run and tell Papa Day and he makes us take
him dere and he goes in de briar patch where dem men hidin'. Dey takes
him round de knees and begs him do he not tell dere massa where dey at,
'cause dey maybe git kilt. Dey say dey am old Lodge and Baldo and dey
run 'way 'cause dere massa whips dem, 'cause dey so old dey can't work
good no more. Papa Day has tears comin' in he eyes. Dey can't hardly
walk, so he sends dem to de house and has Aunt Mandy, de cook, fix up
somethin' to eat quick. I never seed sech eatin', dey so hongry. He puts
dem in a house and tells us not to say nothin'. Den he rides off on he
hoss and goes to dere massa and tells him 'bout it, and jes' dares him
to come git dem. He pays de man some money and Lodge and Baldo stays
with Papa Day and I guess day thunk dey in Heaven.

"One mornin' Papa Day calls all us to de house and reads de freedom
papers and say, 'De gov'ment don't need to tell you you is free, 'cause
you been free all you days. If you wants to stay you can and if you
wants to go, you can. But if you go, lots of white folks ain't gwine
treat you like I does.'

"For de longest time, maybe two years, dey wasn't none of Papa Day's
cullud folks what left, but den first one fam'ly den 'nother gits some
land to make a crop on, and den daddy gits some land and us leaves, too.
Maybe he gits de land from Papa Day, 'cause it an't far from his
plantation. Us sho' work hard on dat place, but I heared mama say lots
of times she wishes we stay on Papa Day's place.

"I 'member one year us don't make no crop hardly and daddy say he gwine
git out 'fore us starves to death, and he moves to Houston. He gits a
job doin' carpenter work