'"
So in the following pages you will read the sequel to my childhood
life in the Sunny South.
Right after the war when my mother had got settled in her hut, with
her little brood hovered around her, from which she had been so long
absent, we had nothing to eat, and nothing to sleep on save some old
pieces of horse-blankets and hay that the soldiers gave her. The
first day in the hut was a rainy day; and as night drew near it grew
more fierce, and we children had gathered some little fagots to make a
fire by the time mother came home, with something for us to eat, such
as she had gathered through the day. It was only corn meal and pease
and ham-bone and skins which she had for our supper. She had started a
little fire, and said, "Some of you close that door," for it was cold.
She swung the pot over the fire and filled it with the pease and
ham-bone and skins. Then she seated her little brood around the fire
on the pieces of blanket, where we watched with all our eyes, our
hearts filled with desire, looking to see what she would do next. She
took down an old broken earthen bowl, and tossed into it the little
meal she had brought, stirring it up with water, making a hoe cake.
She said, "One of you draw that griddle out here," and she placed it
on the few little coals.
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