Lumpkin's place. Ain't nobody gwine to be brash 'nough to do no
devilment 'round a Jedges place.

"Hit was long atter de War 'fo' I married. I cyan' 'member nuffin' 'bout
my weddin' dress. 'Pears like to me I been married mos' all of my life.
Us jes' went to de preacher man's house and got married. Us had eight
chillun, but dey is all dead now 'ceppin' two; one son wukkin' way off
f'um here, and my daughter in Athens.

"I knows I wuz fixed a heap better fo' de War, than I is now, but I sho'
don't want no slav'ry to come back. It would be fine effen evvy Negro
had a marster like Jedge Lumpkin, but dey won't all dat sort."

Anna leaned heavily on her cane as she answered the knock on the front
door when we visited her home. "Come in," she invited, and led the way
through her scrupulously tidy house to the back porch.

"De sun feels good," she said, "and it sorter helps my rheumatiz. My
rheumatiz been awful bad lately. I loves to set here whar I kin see dat
my ole hen and little chickens don't git in no mischief." A small bucket
containing chicken food was conveniently at hand, so she could scatter
it on the ground to call her chickens away from depredations on the
flowers. A little mouse made frequent excursions into the bucket and
helped himself to the cracked grains in the chicken food. "Don't mind
him," she admonished, "he jes' plays 'round my cheer all day, and don't
bother nuffin'."

"You didn't tell anything about your brothers and sisters when you
talked to me before," her visitor remarked.