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"I was born in Simpson County, near old Westville, on a big farm what b'long to Marse Jack Berry. I was 12 years old when de surrender come, so my ole Mis' say. Her name was 'Mis Ailsey an' all us cullud folks call her 'Ole Mi's. She an' Old Marster had twelve chillun: Marthy, 'Lizabeth, Flavilia, Mary, Jack, Bill, Denson, Pink, Tally, Thomas, Albert, and Frank.
The little girl daintily picked her way along the foot-path and through a short garden patch planted in onions and black-eyed peas. Beside a bed of sweet sage she faltered an instant and hung back. "Aunt Ailsey," she called tremulously, "I want to speak to you, Aunt Ailsey." She stepped upon the smooth round stone which served for a doorstep and looked into the room. "It's me, Aunt Ailsey!
Why, I'se done wash en i'on Marse Noah's shuts twel I 'uz right stiff in de j'ints. He ain' never let nobody flute his frills fur 'im 'cep'n' me. Lawd, Lawd, Marse Peyton's shuts warn' nuttin ter Marse Noah's!" Betty's eyes grew big. "I reckon you're mighty old, Aunt Ailsey 'most as old as God, ain't you?" Aunt Ailsey pondered the question. "I ain' sayin' dat, honey," she modestly replied.
"Oh, change it! change it!" cried the child. "Beg the devil to come and change it quick." Brought back to herself, Aunt Ailsey grunted and knocked the ashes from her pipe. "I ain' gwine ter ax no favors er de devil," she replied sternly. "You des let de devil alont en he'll let you alont.
"Dar now," said Aunt Ailsey, soothingly, "you des set right still en wait twel ter-night at de full er de moon." She got up and took down one of the crumbling skins from the chimney-piece. "Ef'n de hine foot er a he frawg cyarn tu'n yo' hyar decent," she said, "dar ain' nuttin' de Lawd's done made es'll do hit.
Aunt Ailsey had been dead for years, but the free negro Levi had moved into her hut, and as Betty looked up she saw him standing beneath the blasted oak, with a bundle of brushwood upon his shoulder.
I remember when you went through diphtheria how she sent your father to stay with one of the neighbours, and shut herself up with old Ailsey to nurse you. I don't believe she undressed or closed her eyes for a week." Her own mother! So she was not the only one who had suffered this anguish other women, many women, had been through it before she was born.
The sound of banjo strumming came faintly from the dimness beyond, while at their feet the Problem of the South sprawled innocently amid tomato cans and rotting cabbage leaves. "Wait here just a minute and I'll run up and speak to Aunt Ailsey," remarked Mrs.
"NOTICE. I, Pleasant Webb, of the State of Georgia, Oglethorpe county, being an illiterate man, and not able to write my own name, and whereas it hath been represented to me that there is a certain promissory note or notes out against me that I know nothing of, and further that some man in this State holds a bill of sale for a certain negro woman named Ailsey and her increase, a part of which is now in my possession, which I also know nothing of.
"Conjure quick and I won't holler," she said. "Gawd in heaven!" exclaimed Aunt Ailsey. Her dim old eyes brightened as she gently stroked the child's brow with her palsied fingers. "Dis yer ain' no way ter conjure, honey," she whispered. "You des wait twel de full er de moon, w'en de devil walks de big road." She was wandering again after the fancies of dotage, but Betty threw herself upon her.
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