“But I said, ‘No, you must take the little children and go in the bedroom and stay there.’
“She did. I had three sons that were grown up, between twenty and twenty-eight years old, and I had a Winchester, a shotgun and a pistol. I gave the Winchester to the oldest, the shotgun to the next, and the pistol to the youngest. I took my ax for myself. I stationed the boys at the far end of the room—away from the door.
“The oldest said, ‘Papa, let’s kill them.’
“I said, ‘No. You just stand there and do nothing till I tell you. When they break in, I’ll knock the first one in the head with the ax. But don’t you do nothin’ till I tell you.’
“After a while, we heard a noise outside, and I took my stand beside the door. Then they gave a rush, and battered the door down. A man with a gray hood on jumped inside. I hit him side the head with the flat of the ax, and he fell down across the door.
“Then the others rushed up, and the boys cut loose with all three of the guns, and such another uproar you never heard. They high-tailed it down the street, and the boys took right after them, shooting at their legs. The Winchester shot sixteen times, and the pistol shot six, and the boy with the shotgun was shooting and breaking down and reloading and shooting again as fast as he could.
“I went outside and whistled for the boys to come back. They come. They would always obey me. I told them to carry the man I had hit out. He was still lying there. Through all the fuss and uproar, he had been lying there across the doorway. Carried him out, and threw him on the sidewalk. My eldest son said the man said, ‘Holloway, don’t hit me no more.’
“I didn’t, but if I had known who he was then, I would have gone out and cut his throat. He was old Colonel Troutman’s son. There was just two hours difference in our birth. Me and him both nursed from the same breast. We grew up together and were never separated until we were thirteen (beginning of the war). Many people thought we were brothers. I had fought for him and he had fought for me. When he wasn’t at my house, I was at his, and his father partly raised me. That’s the reason I don’t trust white people.
“We had a big dog that everyone was scared of. We always kept him chained up. I unchained the dog, and took the boys and we went out in the woods. It was cold; so we made a fire under a tall sapling.
“Near daylight, I said, ‘The dog sees something, but we can’t see what it is.’ The eldest son said, ‘Pappy, if you get astride the dog, and look the way he’s looking, you can see what he sees.’