"The children used to say to me, 'They beat your papa yesterday.'

"And I would say to them, 'They better not beat my papa,' and they would
go up to the house and tell it, and I would beat 'em for tellin' it.

"There was an old white man used to come out and teach papa how to read
the Bible.

"Papa said, 'Ain't you 'fraid they'll kill you if they see you?'

"The old man said, 'No; they don't know what I'm doing, and don't you
tell 'em. If you do, they will kill me.'


Signs of the War

"One night my father called me outside and told me that he saw the
elements opened up and soldiers fighting in the heavens.

"'Don't you see them, honey?' he said; but I couldn't see them. And he
said there was going to be a war.

"I went out and told it. The white people said they ought to take him
out and beat him and make him hush his mouth. Because if they got such
talk going 'round among the colored people, they wouldn't be able to do
nothin' with them. Dr. Polk's wife's father, Old Man Woods, used to say
that the niggers weren't goin' to be free. He said that God had showed
that to him.