Before resuming the conversation, Ike went back in the house to put the treasured pen away.  In a few moments he returned.  “God has been good to us,” he said, “for He let us have all nine of our chillun ’til dey was grown up.  Us wuked mighty hard to raise ’em and give all of ’em a good education.  Dat was somepin us couldn’t have when us was growin’ up and I’m thankful to be able to say dat us was able to send ’em all to college.  Four of our chillun has gone on ahead to de next world, and de five dat’s left is scattered from place to place; none of ’em is wid us now, but dey don’t forgit us.  Dey writes to us and visits us often and us goes to see dem.  One son is goin’ mighty well as a lawyer in Washin’ton, D.C., and our baby lives in New York City.  It’s been ’bout 3 years now since my daughter Juliette died atter a automobile wreck near Dalton, Georgia.  Did you know ’bout Juliette?  She give her life to wuk for de Y.W.C.A., and she went all over de world tryin’ to make things better for de young women of our race.  Somebody writ a memorial book ’bout her.  I wish dere was a copy of dat book here for you to see, but it was borrowed from us and it ain’t been returned.

“Did you know I had jus’ come back from Washin’ton, whar I visited dat lawyer son of mine?  He sends for me nearly evvy summer and I enjoy visitin’ dar, but I wouldn’t lak to live up dar ’cause dem folks ain’t lak our own southern people.  I must say dey is mighty nice and good to me when I goes dar though.  Once when I was dar somebody told me dat if I wanted to have a good time I mustn’t let nobody know I was a Georgian ’cause dey said dat de northerners don’t lak our State.  De rest of de time I was dar on dat visit I tuk partic’lar pleasure in tellin’ evvybody how proud I was of my State and my home.

“Dat reminds me of Miss Sally Hodgson.  She was in de North, and one evenin’ she was tryin’ to tell de folks up dar dat de southern people warn’t as bad as some of de Yankees had said dey was, and dat de white folks down South didn’t mistreat de colored folks.  Miss Sally said dat de very next mornin’ de papers up dar was full of news ‘bout de lynchin’ of 8 Negroes in one night at Watkinsville.  If you had knowed Miss Sally, you would know how funny dat was,” Ike laughed.  “She said atter dat dere warn’t no way she could convince dem folks up dar dat Georgia was a good place to live in.

“Us had some good friends in de North and sometimes dey comes down here to see us.  One of my wife’s friends, a ’oman wid a lot of education has jus’ gone back to Philadelphia atter a visit here in our home.  Us travels a good deal and us has found dat de world ain’t so large but dat us is allus runnin’ up against somebody dat us knows wherever us goes.