When wearied and worried
With the tumult and the throng,
I seek again the cabin,
Where dwelt a heart of gold
And in dreams she loves and pets me,
As she did in days of old.

"Oh, my dear old colored mammy,
In the cabin far away,
Since you rocked me in the cradle
Seems forever and a day.
Yet in dreams I hear you crooning
Above my cradle nest;
'Sleep on, baby boy,
Mammy watches while you rest.'"

A white baby, whose mother was ill for months, was given to one of
these colored mothers to nurse. After the war the white family moved
west. As their child grew up the father and mother often told her
about Aunt Hannah, how she loved her, petted her, cooked for her, and
drove away her own pickaninnies to let "mammy's baby" sleep.

The girl, when she had grown to womanhood, heard that Aunt Hannah was
still living and she longed to see her devoted old colored mammy. Her
parents had the same desire, and with other attachments for the old
southern home, they went back to Georgia on a visit and to the village
where the old woman lived. She was sent for and the old black mammy
and the beautiful young girl faced each other. The young lady was
disappointed. She expected to see a nice, comely old woman, but there
she stod, crippled with rheumatism, gray headed, wrinkled, and poorly