Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/237

Rh an' some er her men folks had done tacked a ol' horse hide oyer that there hollow in the tree an' when I crope up behind mammy I seen what wa' a makin' the boom. There wa' a great big black man, what belonged ter the Macons, who lived over pretty nigh ter the mountings, a beatin' on that ol' horse hide, same as a drum. They wa' a crowd er black folks from plantations all aroun' hereabouts, 'bout fifty I reckon all tol', an' others wa' comin' a cropin' through the underbrush same as mammy an' me.

"Mos' the women wa' in they yaller cotton shifts same as mammy an' the men had on they shirts, some er em', an' some jes' ol' pants what they had pulled on. Aunt Peachy wa' standin' on a big rock. You kin see that rock ter this day in the midst er that parsture down on the other side the ribber. If you could er seed her that night you could git some idea how come I's got a kinder awesome feelin' fer that ol' nigger. In them days she wa' big. You couldn't never believe it when you sees her now all dried up an' pretty nigh ready ter blow away, but Aunt Peachy wa' a hefty ooman an' as straight as a pine tree. I ain't never in all these years been able ter git her image out'n my min'.

"If there is sech a thing as a she-debble Aunt Peachy am her. She had done unwropped her