deyse'ves. Dey called 'im in to 'scribe for us. I was snake-bit when I
was eight year old. Dey used to be a medicine named 'lobelia.' De doctor
give me dat an' whiskey. My ma carried me up to de Big House ever'
mornin' an' lef' me, an' carried me home at night. Old Mis' 'ud watch
over me in de day time.

"My young marster tol' me dat when I got to be ten year old, I'd have a
snake coiled up on my liver. Dat scared me mos' to death 'til I was past
ten year old.

"Dey made all de Niggers' clo'es[FN: clothes] on de place. Homespun, dey
called it. Dey had spinnin' wheels an' cards an' looms at de Big House.
All de women spinned in de winter time.

"I never knowed what it was to wear more dan one garment, 'til I was
mos' grown. I never had a pair o' shoes o' my own. Old Mis' let me wear
her'n sometimes. Dey had shoes for de old folks, but not for de chillun.

"I got more whuppin's dan any other Nigger on de place, 'cause I was
mean like my mammy. Always a-fightin' an' scratchin' wid white an'
black. I was so bad Marster made me go look at de Niggers dey hung to
see what dey done to a Nigger dat harm a white man.

"I's gwine tell dis story on myse'f. De white chillun was a-singin' dis
song:

'Jeff Davis, long an' slim,
Whupped old Abe wid a hick'ry limb.

Jeff Davis is a wise man, Lincoln is a fool,