I'd have fifteen year to pay it back in. Now course, I knowed I'd be
dead in dat time, so I signed up wid' em.

"Las' year de men dat collec' nearly worrit me to death a-tryin' to git
some money from me. I didn' have none, so dey say dey gwine a-take my
home.

"Now I hear tell o' dat barefoot Nigger down at Columbus callin' de
president an' him bein' so good to 'im. So I 'cided to write an' tell
'im what a plight dis Nigger was in. I didn' say nothin noxious[FN:
obnoxious], but I jus' tol' him plain facts. He writ me right back an'
pretty soon he sont a man down to see me. He say I needn' bother no
more, dat dey won't take my house 'way from me. An' please de Lawd! Dey
aint nobody else been here a-pesterin' me since.

"Dat man tol' me soon as de old age pension went th'ough I'd git thirty
dollars a mont' stid[FN: instead] o' de four I's a-gittin' now. Now
won't dat be gran'? I could live lak de white folks on dat much.

"I'se had 'ligion all my born days. (I never learnt to read de Bible an'
'terpet de Word 'til I was right smart size, but I mus' o' b'lieved in
de Lawd since 'way back.) I'se gwine a-go right 'long an' keep
a-trustin' de good Lawd an' I knows ever'thing gwine a-come out all
right.

"'Twixt de Lawd an' de good white folks I know I's gwine always have
somethin' t'eat. President Roosevelt done 'tended to de roof over my
head."