County, could boast.

Aunt Charlotte never spoke of her life under the old regime but she had
supreme contempt for "no count niggers that didn't hav' no white Folks".
She was thrifty and frugal. Having a large family, most of her small
earnings was spent on them. However, she early taught her children to
scratch for themselves. Two of her daughters died after they had each
brought several children into the world. Charlotte thought they were
being neglected by their fathers and proceeded to take them "to raise
myse'f". These grand children were the apple of her eye and she did much
more for them than she had done for her own children.

The old woman had many queer ways. Typical of her eccentricities was her
iron clad refusal to touch one bite of food in our house. If she wished
a dish she was preparing tasted to see that it contained the proper
amount of each ingredient she would call some member of the family,
usually my grandmother, and ask that he or she sample the food.
Paradoxically, she had no compunctions about the amount of food she
carried home for herself and her family.

Strange as it may seem, Charlotte was an incorrigible rogue. My mother
and my grandmother both say that they have seen her pull up her skirts
and drop things into a flour sack which she always wore tied round her
waist just for this purpose. I myself have seen this sack so full that
it would bump against her knee. She did not confine her thefts to food
only. She would also take personal belongings. Another servant in the
household once found one of Aunt Charlotte's granddaughters using a
compact that she had stolen from her young mistress. The servant took
the trinket away from the girl and returned it to the owner but nothing
was ever said to Aunt Charlotte although every one knew she had stolen