"The first morning she was at Mis' Candle's, they called her to eat and
they didn't have nothing but black molasses and corn bread for mother's
meal. The other two ate it but mother didn't. She asked for something
else. She said she wasn't used to eating that--that she ate what her
master and mistress ate at home.

"Mis' Candle didn't like that to begin with. She told my mother that she
was a smart nigger. She told mother to do one thing and then before she
could do it, she would tell her do something else. Mother would just go
on doing the first thing till she finished that, and Mis' Candle would
git mad. But it wasn't nobody's fault but her own.

"She asked mother to go out and git water from the spring on a rainy
day. Mother wouldn't go. Finally mother got tired and went back home.
Her mistress heard what she had to tell her about the place she'd been
working. Then she said mother did right to quit. She had worked there
for three or four months. They meant to keep her but she wouldn't stay.
Mis' Hickman went over and collected her money.

"When mother worked out, the people that hired her paid her owners. Her
owners furnished her everything she wanted to eat and clothes to wear,
and all the money she earned went to them.

"Mis' Candle begged Mr. Hickman to let him have mother back. He said
he'd talk to his wife and she wouldn't mistreat her any more but mama
said that she didn't want to go back and Mrs. Hickman said, 'No, she
doesn't want to go back and I wouldn't make her.' And the girls said,
'No, mama, don't let her go back.' And Mis' Hickman said, 'No, she was
raised with my girls and I am not going to let her go back.'