“Yas suh, Boss, I is sure ’nough growed up with dis here county.  In my young days most all de west end of this county was in de woods.  There wasn’t no ditches or no improvements at all.  De houses an’ barns was most all made of logs, but I is gwine to tell you one thing, de niggers an’ de white folks, dey get erlong more better together then dan dey does at dis time.  De white folks then an’ de darkies, dey just had more confidence in each other seems like in dem days.  I don’t know how ’twas in de other states after de War, but right here in Phillips County de white folks, dey encouraged de darkies to buy ’em a home.  Dey helped dem to git it.  Dey sure done dat.  Mr. Marve Carruth, dat was really a good white man.  He helped me to get dis very place here dat I is owned for fifty years.  An’ then I tell you dis too, Boss, when I was coming up, de folks, dey just worked harder dan dey do these days.  A good hand then naturally did just about three er four times as much work in a day as dey do now.  Seems like dis young bunch awful no ‘count er bustin’ up and down de road day and night in de cars, er burnin’ de gasoline when dey orter be studyin’ ‘bout makin’ er livin’ an’ gettin’ demselves er home.

“Yas suh, I riccolect all ‘bout de time dat de niggers holdin’ de jobs in de courthouse in Helena, but I is never took no part in that votin’ business an’ I allus kept out of dem arguments.  I left it up to de white folks to ’tend to de ‘lectin’ of officers.

“De darkies what was in de courthouse dat I riccolect was:  Bill Gray, he was one of de clerks; Hense Robinson, Dave Ellison, an’ some more dat I don’t remember.  Bill Gray, he was a eddycated man, but de res’, dey was just plain old ex-slave darkies an’ didn’t know nothing.  Bill Gray, he used to be de slave of a captain on a steamboat on de ribber.  He was sorter servant to he mars on de boat where he stayed all the time.  The captain used to let him git some eddycation.  Darkies, dey never last long in de courthouse.  Dey soon git ’em out.

“I gwine tell you somepin else dat is done changed er lot since I was comin’ up.  Dat is, de signs what de folks used to believe in dey don’t believe in no more.  Yet de same signs is still here, an’ I sure does believe in ’em ’cause I done seen ’em work for all dese years.  De Lawd give de peoples a sign for all things.  De moon an’ de stars, dey is a sign for all them what can read ’em an’ tells you when to plant de cotton an’ de taters an’ all your crops.  De screech owls, dey give er warnin’ dat some one gwine to die.  About de best sign dat some person gwine die ‘round close is for a cow to git to lowin’ an’ a lowin’ constant in de middle of de night.  Dat is a sign I hardly is ever seen fail an’ I seen it work out just a few weeks ago when old Aunt Dinah died up de road.  I heered dat cow a lowin’ an’ a lowin’ an’ a walkin’ back an’ forth down de road for ’bout four nights in a row, right past Aunt Dinah’s cabin.  I say