git up atall. I's tellin de truf. A cullud man done it. He was a
crippled man, an' mean as he could be. I was good to him, too. He tol'
me' bout it, hisse'f:

"'He went to de graveyard an' got some o' de meanes' dirt he could fin'
(I don't know how he knowed which was de meanes' grave) an' put it under
my doorsill.' He sho' fix' me. I ask him how come he done it to me an' I
been so good to him. He smile kinda tickle-lak an' say, 'It's a good
thing you was good to me, 'cause, if you hadn' a-been you'd a-been dead
an' in yo' grave by now.'

"I aint got nary soul what's kin to me dat I knows of. I don't want none
of 'em comin' to me now an' a-sayin', 'Don't you 'member yo' own
cousin?' My white folks he'p me when I needs it.

"Dese young folks. Shucks! Chile, dey's worse'n what I was, only dey's
more slyer. Dat's all.

"I's glad I'se got 'ligion, 'cause when I dies I's gwine to de 'Good
Place.'"




Isaac Stier, Ex-slave, Lauderdale County
FEC
Edith Wyatt Moore
Rewrite, Pauline Loveless
Edited, Clara E. Stokes