Jus' how far is you done walked?"
asked Paul. Then he stopped one of the women from the washing and bade
her "run into the house and fetch a fan for Missy."
Paul is a large man, and a fringe of kinky white hair frames his face.
His manner is very friendly for, noticing that the visitor was looking
with some curiosity at the leather bands that encircled his wrists, the
old man grinned. "Dem's jus' to make sho' dat I won't have no
rheumatiz," he declared. "Mind if I cuts me a chaw of 'baccy? I'se jus'
plumb lost widout no 'baccy."
Paul readily agreed to give the story of his life. "I can't git over it,
dat you done walked way out here from de courthouse jus' to listen to
dis old Nigger talk 'bout dem good old days.
"Mammy belonged to Marse Jack Ellis, and he owned de big old Ellis
Plantation in Oglethorpe County whar I was borned. Marse Jack give mammy
to his daughter, young Miss Matt, and when her and Marse Nunnally got
married up, she tuk my mammy 'long wid her. Mistess Hah'iet (Harriet)
Smith owned my daddy. Him and mammy never did git married. My granddaddy
and grandmammy was owned by Marse Jim Stroud of Oconee County, and I dug
de graves whar bofe of 'em's buried in Mars Hill graveyard.
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