6

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for this dress, but I paid 37-1/2¢ a yard for mine." She put the dress
away carefully and sat down again. Lula Belle came close and rested
herself against my feet. When the fire blazed up again after Mrs.
Pratt had replenished it with a few lumps of coal from a bucket, the
dog quickly arose and sought a cooler place in the corner farthest
from the fireplace .

"I growed up in a mill, " said Mrs. Pratt. "I started to work when
I was 11 years old t o keep from having to go to school. Now I wish I
had some learnin '. I never worked in no mill but the Athens Manufacturin'
Company. Old man Horton owned that mill then, and he paid me $9.30
a month. I done ever'thing there was to be done from sweepin' the
floors and reelin' to spoolin' and spinnin'. You see, I just growed
up in the mill. Them days you was 'lowed to go to work soon as you
was big enough t o do the work. 'Fore I was big enough t o work myself,
my oldest sisters worked there in that same mill, and I remember hearin'
'em tell 'bout two nigger girls workin' by 'em. They said them niggers
warn't right black; they was almost white. I reckon they was some
white man's chillun. When I started to work the war had done freed the
niggers, and white folks wouldn't let nigger women work in mills no more.
Several nigger men worked in the mill when I did, but they just toted
rope and done things like that what was too heavy for womenfolks to
handle. I'm sure glad niggers are free, for if they warn't this mill
down here would be filled up with 'em."

The telephone rang. Mrs. Pratt asked if I could talk over the
phone. On receiving an affirmative reply, she quickly muttered, "Well,

1914