Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/363

 Folk-Tales from Georgia. 31

say she can't go no higher, and she fly round and round. Presently Sis Crow come sailing along and she hear a great fuss, and she ask little red-bird, " What the matter ? " Little red-bird tell Sis Crow how the little boy crying for her to take him to heaven, and she beg Sis Crow to take him on.

Sis Crow say she take him far as she can go, but she can't take him clean to heaven. Little red-bird say, Sis Crow might fall in with King Eagle, and King Eagle can take him to heaven. Sis Crow she say, " Yes, King Eagle can take him to heaven, 'case King Eagle am the onliest bird what can look in the face of the Lord without winking."

So the little boy get on Sis Crow's back, and he feel very happy, 'case he get started again. Presently Sis Crow say she can't go no higher. The little boy he look and look, but he can't see no heaven. He cry and cry, and beg Sis Crow to go higher ; but Sis Crow she say she can't go no higher, and she sail round and round, while she watch out for King Eagle. Presently King Eagle come sailing along and he hear a mighty fuss up there, and he ask Sis Crow, "What the matter ? " Sis Crow she tell King Eagle how the little boy crying 'case he want to go to heaven to see his daddy, and she beg King Eagle to take him to heaven.

King Eagle he say he take him, but he can't fotch him back. He tell the little boy he "will take him to heaven, if he won't ask him to fotch him back."

Then the little boy he get on King Eagle's back, and they go higher and higher, twell they get in the glory of the Lord, when the little boy have to shut his eyes, it shines so bright. But King Eagle never shut his eyes at all, and he put the little boy inside the pearly gates, and the little boy was very happy.

But after a little bit the little boy begin to grieve mighty for his mammy. He cry and he cry, and when the Angel ask him what the matter, he beg him to take a message to his mammy.

He beg the Angel to tell his mammy to spin him a cord long enough so he can tie it on the gate-post and come down to her. So the Angel she came down to earth, and she take the little boy's message to his mammy, and when she enter the house, she fill it with a great white light. And the little boy's mammy she say when the cotton done picked she surely spin the cord for him, but his mammy she say "she have to work in the field by day, and she can only spin by night, and she have no light."

And the Angel she feel so sorry for the little boy crying, she tell his mammy "she stand in the door for a light to spin by."

So Mammy Carline all that season she keep her place in the field with the hands by day, and by night the people hear her spinning- wheel all night long, and a bright light in her cabin.

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