"Right after the War, my mother worked--washed--for an old white man. He
took an interest in me and taught me. I did little things for him. When
he died, I took up the teaching which he had been doing.
"At first I taught in Columbus, Georgia. By and by, a white man came
along looking for laborers for this part of the country. He said money
grew on bushes out here. He cleaned out the place. All the children and
all the grown folks followed him. Two of my boys came to me and told me
they were coming. We hoboed on freights and walked to Chattanooga,
Tennessee. We stayed there awhile. Then a white man came along getting
laborers. I never kept the year nor nothin'. He brought us to Lonoke
County, and I got work on The Bood Bar Plantation. Squirrels, wild
things, cotton and corn, plenty of it. So you see, the man told the
truth when he said money grew on bushes.
"I taught and farmed all my life. Farming is the greatest occupation. It
supports the teacher, the preacher, the lawyer, the doctor. None of them
can live without it.
"I can't do much now since that lady knocked me down with her automobile
and made me a cripple. I'd a been all right if so many of them young
doctors hadn't experimented on me. Then I can't see good out of one eye.
I can't do much now. I don't know why they won't give me a pension."