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That first night was a sight to me.
My brother took me in the dining room and there were twenty five or thirty
men seated at the table. I had never seen such a long table in my life.
They had everything good to eat. My brother told the men who I was, and
that he had a good helper, and that I was going to do his swamping for
him.
After staying there a night or so and getting acquainted with the men, my brother insisted that I come around and sing some songs for them before bedtime. To sing was one of my greatest pleasures. I knew quite a number of songs by heart. Every time I would sing a song, they would pass the hat around and each would give me a nickel. When I left home on this voyage with my brother, I didn't have a nickel in my pocket. When I got back home, I had a pocketful of money. I put it all in a jar and kept it there. It really tickled me whenever Ma would run short of money and ask to borrow some from me. I really felt like a "big wheel." EXCITEMENT ON THE FARM When I was just about eight years old, Pa moved his sorghum mill out to my Uncle George Ryan's farm to make a crop of sugar cane. Aunt Pollie, my Ma's sister, was blind. If anything went just a little wrong she would get all excited. They had left one of our horses fastened up in a stall. The stable had a sliding door, of which the middle plank was loose. Our horse worked and worked until finally he had his head through and pushed the plank out, ending up with the door around his neck. Well, the horse became frightened and his knees would bump against the door. The poor old horse was scared half to death. All of us kids were scared, Aunt Pollie was scared and started screaming, and someone began to ring the dinner bell. Pa and the whole gang came running from the field. They finally caught our horse and got the rest of the door off of him. They had left a big fire un- 22 |