“After I left Mississippi I just roved around. Went through Louisiana to Texas. I lived in Texas. I reckon, from 1893 to ’96. Then I started to rove again. I roved from Texas back home to Mississippi in 1902. Stayed there till 1932, then I roved over here to Arkansas. I done got too old to rove now.
“School? Oh Lord, I went to school all my days till I was grown. They kep’ me in school. My mother kep’ me in till she died and then my stepmother kep’ me in. I got very near through the fifth grade. In my day the fifth grade was pretty good. Wilson’s Fifth Reader was a pretty good book. They took me out of Wilson’s Fifth Reader and put me in McGuffy’s and there’s where I quit. Studied the Blue Back Speller.
“I’ve had some narrow escapes in my life. I had a shot right through here in the breast bone—right over my heart. That was in ninety-six. Me and another fellow was projectin with a gun.
“Then I had a bad accident on the ninth of March, 1914. A 800-foot log came down on me. It near ’bout killed me. I was under a doctor ’bout six or eight months. That’s how come I’m crippled now. It broke my leg and it’s two inches shorter than the other one. I walked on crutches ’bout five years. Got my jawbone broke too. Couldn’t eat? I ain’t never stopped eatin’. Ain’t no way to stop me from eatin’ ’cept to not give it to me.
“I compressed after I got my leg broke. And I was a noble good bricklayer.
“I never have voted. Nobody ever pushed me up to it and I ain’t never been bothered ’bout anything like that. Everythin was a satisfaction to me. Just whatever way they went was a satisfaction to me.
“I have never heard my folks give my white folks no ‘down the hill’. My daddy was brought from Charleston, South Carolina. He was a ship carpenter. He did all of Payne’s carpenter work from my baby days up.
“The last of the Paynes died since I came here to Arkansas. He was a A. M. Payne, too.
“I can ’member the soldiers marchin’ by. They wore yellow shirts and navy blue coats. I know the coats had two little knobs right behind, just the color of the coat.
“I don’t know what to think of the younger generation. I don’t know why and what to think of ’em. Just don’t know how to take ’em. Ain’t comin’ like I did. Lay it to the parents. They have plenty of leaders outside the family.