"Den we come to Forest. Dey brought all de fam'ly over here--all my
brothers an' sisters. Dey was five of' em--Wash an' East is de two I
'members. All o' us b'longed to de Harper fam'ly. Marse Bob owned us. My
ma an' pa both died here in Forest.

"I he'ped to build dis house for Marse Bob. I cleaned de lan' an' lef de
trees where he tol' me. He lived in a little old shack whilst we built
de Big House.

"Mr. M.D. Graham put up de firs' store here an' de secon' was put up by
my marster.

"I worked in de fiel' some, but mos'ly I was a house servant. I used to
go all over de country a-huntin' eggs an' chickens for de fam'ly on'
count dey was so much comp'ny at de house.

"A heap o' white folks was good to dey Niggers, jus' as good as dey
could be, but a heap of' em was mean, too. My mistis was good to us an'
so was Marse Jim Harper. He wouldn' let de boys 'buse us while he lived,
but when he died dey was wild an' cruel. Dey was hard taskmasters. We
was fed good three times a day, but we was whupped too much. Dat got
me. I couldn' stan' it. De old marster give us good dinners at
Chris'mus, but de young ones stopped all dat.

"De firs' train I ever seen was in Brandon. I went dere to carry some
horses for my marster. It sho' was a fine lookin' engine. I was lookin'
at it out of a upstairs window an' when it whistled I'd a-jumped out dat
window if Captain Harper hadn' a-grabbed me.