"Honey, is you a Christian?" she asked earnestly. "I hopes you is, ca'se you is too fine lookin' for to go to Hell. I b'longs to de Baptis' Church, an' dey calls me Ma Eppes 'ca'se I's de mother of de church. I loves to sing de gospel Hymns."
She began to sing in a high, cracked voice, her body swaying with the rhythm. The song rose until her neighbors had gathered to form quite an audience. With much moaning between every line, she sang:
"I am a sojer of de Cross,
A follerer of de Lam'.
I'm not afeard to own His name,
Nor to 'fen' His cause."
(Chorus)
"I wan' you to come,
I wan' you to come,
I wan' you to come
An' be saved."
She was still singing as I left her, the neighbors joining in the choruses. Suppers would be late in the row of weatherbeaten cabins, because the spirit of song was on the gathering.
[Reuben Fitzpatrick]
Interview with Reuben Fitzpatrick
—[HW: Mabel Farrior, Montgomery, Alabama]
A HORN FOR A HEADACHE
Reuben Fitzpatrick, of Eugene Street, Montgomery, was born Jan. 9, 1854, (83 years old). He says:
"My Marster was Mister Gholson frum Bullock county. He had lots uv slaves 'cause he was a rich man. I was jes' a boy ten years ole an' he was a squire dat tried cases, so he rode all over de country to dif'funt places. I rode wid him to hole his horse. He wore a high top black hat and had a buggy wid a top dat let back. When we went we was gone a long time an' when night come he would fix it fer me to sleep wid some uv de niggers in de quarters where we stopped. I sho' lacked to go 'bout wid him.
"My mother was de cook. She had rule over all the cookin'. She spinned thread an' reeled it off too.