“But before they got there, our Missus had called us together and told us what to say.

“Now you beg for us!  You can save our lives.  If they ask you if we are good to you, you tell them, ‘YES’!

“If they ask you, if we give your meat, you tell them ‘YES’!

“Now the rest didn’t get any meat, but I did ’cause I worked in the house, so I didn’t tell a lie, for I did get meat, but the rest didn’t get it.

“We saw the Yankees coming.  They never stopped for nothing.  Their horses would jump the worn rail fences and they’d come right across the fiel’s an’ everything.

“They came to the house first and bound our Missus up stairs so she couldn’t get away, then they came out to the sheds and asked us all kind of questions.

“We begged for our Missus and we say: 

  ’Our Missus is good.  Don’t kill her! 
  ’Dont take our meat away from us! 
  ’Dont hurt our Missus! 
  ’Dont burn the house down!

[TR:  The rest of the interview is new information.]

“We begged so hard that they unloosened her, but they took some of the others for refugees and some of the slaves volunteered and went off with them.

“They took potatoes and all the hams they wanted, but they left our Missus, ’cause me save her life.

“The Uncle what I libbed with, he was awful full of all kinds of devilment.  He stole sweet taters out of the bank.  He called them “pot” roots and sometimes he called them “blow horts”.  You know they wuld blow up big and fat when they were roasted in the ashes.

“My uncle, he liked those blow horts mighty well, and one day, when he had some baked in the fireplace, Ole Massy Hoover, he came along and peeked in through the “hold” in de chimley wall, where the stones didn’t fit too good.

“He stood there and peeked in an’ saw my uncle eat in’ those blow horts.  He had a big long one shakin’ the ashes off on it.  He was blowing it to cool it off so he could eat it and he was a-sayin’

“‘Um! does blowhorts is mighty good eatin’.  Then Massy, he come in wid his big whip, and caught him and tied him to a tree and paddled him until he blistered and then washed his sore back with strong salt water.  You know they used to use salt for all of sores, but it sho’ did smart.

“My aunt, she was an Indian woman.  She didn’t want my uncle to steal, but he was just full of all kind of devilment.

“My Massy liked him, but one day he played a trick on him.

“My Uncle took sick, he was so sick that when my Massy came to see him, he asked him to pray that he should die.  So Massy Hoover, he went home and wrapped himself up in a big long sheet and rapped on the door real hard.

“Uncle, he say, ‘who’s out there?  What you want?’

“Massy, he change his voice and say, ’I am Death.  I hear that you want to die, so I’ve come after your soul.  Com with me!  Get ready.  Quick I am in a hurry!’