"They and Ma is all the time cussing me because we aint got nothing to eat. I aint had nothing to do with it. It aint my fault that Captain John shut down on giving usrationsand snuff. Its his fault, Lov. I worked all my life for Captain John. I worked harder than any four of his niggers in the fields; then the first thing I knowed, he came down here one morning and says he cant be letting me be getting no more rations and snuff at the store. After that he sells all themulesand goes up to Augusta to live. I cant make no money, because there aint nobody wanting work done. Nobody is taking on share-croppers, neither. Aint no kind of work I can find to do for hire. I cant even raise me a crop of my own, because I aint got nomulein the first place, and besides that, wont nobody let me have seed-cotton and guano on credit. Now I cant get no snuff and rations, excepting once in a while when I haul a load of wood up to Augusta. Captain John told the merchants in Fuller not to let me have no more snuff and rations on his credit, and I dont know where to get nothing. Id raise a crop of my own on this land if I could get somebody to sign my guano-notes, but wont nobody do that for me, neither. Thats what Im wanting to do powerful strong right now. When the winter goes, and when it gets to be time to burn off broom-sedge in the fields and underbrush in thethickets, I sort of want to cry, I reckon it is. The smell of that sedge-smoke this time of year near about drives me crazy. Then pretty soon all the other farmers startplowing. Thats what gets under my skin the worse. When the smell of that new earth turning over behind theplowsstrikes me, I get all weak and shaky. Its in my blood-burning broom-sedge and plowing in the ground this time of year. I did it for near about fifty years, and my Pa and his Pa before him was the same kind of men. Us Lesters sure like to stir the earth and make plants grow in it. I cant move off to the cotton mills like the rest of them do. The land has got a powerful hold on me. "This raft of women and children is all the timebellowingfor snuff and rations, too. It dont make no difference that I aint got nothing to buy it with--they want it just the same. I reckon, Lov, Ill just have to wait for the good Lord to provide. They tell me He takes care of His people, and Im waiting for Him to take some notice of me. I dont reckon theres another man between here and Augusta whos as bad off as I is. And down the other way, neither, between here and McCoy. It looks like everybody has got goods and credit excepting me. I dont know why that is, because I always give the good Lord His due. Him and me has always been fair and square with each other. Its time for Him to take some notice of the fix Im in. I dont know nothing else to do, except wait f or Him to take notice. It dont do me no good to try to beg snuff and rations, because aint nobody going to give it to me. Ive tried all over this part of the country, but dont nobody pay no attention to my requests. They say they aint got nothing neither, but I cant see how that is. It dont look like everybody ought to be poverty-ridden just because they live on the land instead of going to the mills. If Ive been a sinful man, I dont know what it is Ive done. I dont seem to remember anything I done powerful sinful. It didnt used to be like it is now, either. I can recall a short time back when all the merchants in Fuller wastickledto give me credit, and I always had plenty of money to spend then, too. Cotton was sellingupwardsof thirty cents a pound, and nobody came around to