14

13.

in today. Both of my wives were the finest of women.

''During my first wife's lifetime she never worked out for
no other family, for she didn't have to do it. I was making plenty
to support her, and the only work she did was her own housework.
Susie here - my second wife - has been taking in washing for the same
white family for the last nine years, and that dollar a week she gets
for it comes in mighty handy when I'm out of work. A dollar's worth
of flour or meal will keep you from going hungry a long time when
you're out hunting for a job.

"Our oldest son is at home with us now, and he's right de-
pendent on me in a way. When I work, he works; and when I'm at home
out of work, he's in the same fix. That's because of his affliction.
He's deaf because of an injury he received when a car ran over him as
he was on his way home from Sunday School when he was just a small
child. His eyes were crossed for a long time after that accident,
but when we got the proper fit of glasses for him they got all right
again. That boy has sure cost me a sight of money for medical care
since that accident. There was one operation after another for
several years.

"Like my daughter, our second boy stopped school in his
senior year in high school. That was because both of 'em married so
young. That boy makes eight-fifty a week as a messenger for the
Georgia Power Company. He has a baby boy about six months old."
While Fred was telling me about his grandson, a young mulatto woman
entered the room. She wore a soiled cotton-lace dress that had once
been white, and a net was carefully fastened over her straight black

1871