"Den he whoops a sort of nigger holler, what nobody can do jes' like dem
ole time darkies, den on he goes,
"'Possum up a 'simmon tree,
Rabbit on de ground
Lawd, Lawd, 'possum,
Shake dem 'simmons down.
Peggy, does you love me now?
_Holler_
Rabbit up a gum stump
'Possum up a holler
Git him out little boy
And I gives you half a dollar.
Peggy, does you love me now?'
[Illustration: _Jenny Proctor_]
"We didn' have much lookin' after when we git sick. We had to take de
worst stuff in de world fer medicine, jes' so it was cheap. Dat ole blue
mass and bitter apple would keep us out all night. Sometimes he have de
doctor when he thinks we goin' to die, 'cause he say he ain't got any
one to lose, den dat calomel what dat doctor would give us would purty
nigh kill us. Den dey keeps all kinds of lead bullets and asafoetida
balls 'round our necks and some carried a rabbit foot wid dem all de
time to keep off evil of any kind.
"Lawd, Lawd, honey! It seems impossible dat any of us ev'r lived to see
dat day of freedom, but thank God we did.
"When ole marster comes down in de cotton patch to tells us 'bout bein'
free, he say, 'I hates to tell you but I knows I's got to, you is free,
jes' as free as me or anybody else what's white.' We didn' hardly know
what he means. We jes' sort of huddle 'round together like scared
rabbits, but after we knowed what he mean, didn' many of us go, 'cause
we didn' know where to of went. Ole marster he say he give us de woods
land and half of what we make on it, and we could clear it and work it
or starve. Well, we didn' know hardly what to do 'cause he jes' gives us
some ole dull hoes an' axes to work with but we all went to work and as
we cut down de trees and de poles he tells us to build de fence 'round
de field and we did, and when we plants de co'n and de cotton we jes'
plant all de fence corners full too, and I never seen so much stuff grow
in all my born days, several ears of co'n to de stalk and dem big cotton
stalks was a layin' over on de ground. Some of de ole slaves dey say dey
believe de Lawd knew sumpin' 'bout niggers after all. He lets us put
co'n in his crib and den we builds cribs and didn' take long 'fore we
could buy some hosses and some mules and some good hogs. Dem mangy hogs
what our marster give us de first year was plum good hogs after we
grease dem and scrub dem wid lye soap. He jes' give us de ones he
thought was sho' to die but we was a gittin' goin' now and 'fore long we
was a buildin' better houses and feelin' kind of happy like. After ole
marster dies we keeps hearin' talk of Texas and me an' my ole man, I's
done been married several years den and had one little boy, well we gits
in our covered wagon wid our little mules hitched to it and we comes to
Texas. We worked as share croppers around Buffalo, Texas 'til my ole man
he died. My boy was nearly grown den so he wants to come to San Angelo
and work, so here we is. He done been married long time now and got six
chillun. Some of dem work at hotels, and cafes and fillin' stations and
in homes."