WE GIVE what little truck and plunder we had to them as needed it more than we did. We taken some clothes to keep clean and decent in a bundle, and a skillit to cook in, and nigh four dollars I had, and we walked down off the Mountain. We come to a settlemint, and then they was more settlemints and towns, and I ast folks had they met with Jacob, and told them how I come to be huntin him. I done forgot the names of half them places. We stopped in them places and I done what I could git to do. We was hongry and it no lie more than one night when the sun went down. We laid down and the belly was drawed, and the sun come and it was the same. But the Lord taken mind on the sparrow, and the Lord taken mind on us. He give me work to do, and He put bread and meat in our mouth. Folks taken us in and they give us bite and sup and we give thanks. I never ast for nuthin. I done somethin ever time to pay.
I stood in the street and I told folks how it was. How the Lord had laid it on me to tell folks. I told them my wickedness and how the wicked man will come down low. I met folks in the big road and I told them. I told them how peace come in my heart and it was lak sunshine when the clouds are done gone. And I met folks as taken heed. You meet a man in the road as has got a coat on his back and his belly full and folks give him a good name and got a tight roof over his head and money in his pants. It looks lak he ain’t thinkin on nuthin but gittin and thrivin and takin his ease, and you tells him how peace come in yore heart. But you name peace in yore heart and you look in his face and it is drawed of a sudden. It is lak they was a old stitch or a old pain in him and he ain’t thought nuthin on it and all of a sudden he knows somethin is in him growin and he gits cold all over and knows he is goin to die and wries up his face. May be he will make his heart hard and he will tell you to git out of his way. But you know they ain’t no peace in his heart. And he knows it and wries up his face. But I met a man in the road nigh a settlemint by the name of Sumatry and I told him how it was. You got peace in yore heart, he ast me.
I told him I did, and give praise. He looked at me nigh half a minute. The Lord bless you, he said of a sudden. Then he said, and the Lord have mercy on my soul.
He was a big man with a black beard all curly, and he had on a black coat and a gold watch and chain and he was ridin in a buggy. He said that to me and then he went off down the road in the buggy.
I come to towns and I stood in the street where the folks was and I read to them folks out of the Bible. I give them the Lords word lak it come to me and I told them how it was with me.
It was eight months when we come to Mitchell Landin. It is a settlemint on the river, and they was buildin a bridge there. I got me work on the bridge, and Murry got him work. Murry was a big boy, and he could do work lak a man. He taken up with us from a town up the valley. He did not have no folks. He was a orfin in the world, and he come with us. He could not read none but he would set and listen and hearken when I read what the Bible said. I read it and he never moved.
They was a feller workin on the bridge by the name of Jasper Littlefoot. Me and him, we was workin alongside, swingin a pick and shevil where the road was goin to the bridge. I ast him did he live in Mitchell Landin, and he said, naw he did not. I ast him where he come from, lak a man will and him civil. He did not say nuthin and I reckined he did not ketch me good. So I ast him agin. He histed up his shevil lak he was gittin ready to bast me over the head, and he said, you son of a bitch. He said it again. I did not do nuthin. I looked at him and I said, you named me a son of a bitch, I am a pore sinful man in Gods sight but I ain’t no son of a bitch. He did not say no more, and he put down his shevil.
They was a feller seen it and it was afterwards he said to me, that feller Littlefoot nigh killed you.
Why, I ast him.
He done kilt one man, he said.
Why was he fixin to kill me, I ast him.
Because you ast him where he come from, he said. And he laughed and he spat out on the ground and he said, he is right touchous if you ast him where he come from, he is touchous because he come from the pen.
He told me that feller was in the pen ten years for killin a man. He had not been out no time, and he was touchous. He did not have nuthin to do with folks. He lived in a old shanty boat on the river by hisself.
The next day when we quit workin about sun, I seen Littlefoot start walkin off. I walked aside of him. I said to him, I was in a dark prisen and I laid in the dark.
He did not say nuthin. He just kept walkin and lookin down the road lak they was not nobody but hisself.
I laid in the dark, I said, and I was a lost man and somebody put a key in the lock and throwed the door wide open and the light come in so strong I blinked blind for the brightness.
Yeah, he said, yeah, they put a key in my lock and they throwed the door open but it taken them ten years.
He said it but he never looked at me when he done it.
I laid longer, I said.
How long, he said.
Not ten years, I said, it was more than a score.
He looked at me right clost, and he seen I was not no old man, and he said, they must have put you in for bitin yore Mammy on the tit.
Naw, I said, naw, but I laid in the dark nigh all my life, I laid in the prisen cell but it was the dark of sin and wickedness where I laid.
He looked at me agin. He stopped in the road and looked at me and scan me clost, and he did not say but one word. It was a word I ain’t goin to put on no paper. It was a word of filthiness and abominations. But he give me a look and it was all he said. Then he started walkin down the road.
But when the job out at the bridge was done finished he taken up with us. I had done told him how it was with me. I had done read the Lords blessed word to him. We had done been down on our knee bones together afore God and Him Most High.
I done said he lived by hisself on a shanty boat. He taken us on the shanty boat with him. We was goin down the river and we was goin to tell the Gospel to them as had ears.
We come to towns and places on the river. We worked to git money to buy a little somethin to eat. We fished in the river. Jasper had him a old squirril rifle and we kilt squirrils and rabbits and et them. We was a long time on the river, comin down. We stayed at places a long time and worked and told folks about Gods blessed word and how peace come in our hearts. Then when it come on us to be goin we went down the river. A old man and his wife taken up with us at a town they named Cherryville. The house they had had done burnt plum down to the ground and the grandbaby they was raisin. That baby was all the folks they had. Our baby has done gone to the Lord, the old man said, and we done turned our eyes to the Lord. They had the name of Lumpkin. He was a old man, but he washed a lot and kept hisself clean. He had been a hand to chaw and smoke, he said, but when the Gospel taken holt he give it up. It was a filthiness, he said.
We seen days hongry and we seen days cold on the river. But we taken what the Lord sent and knowed it was good. We give praise and rejoicin.
I always ast if folks had seen Jacob. At one place they was a man as thought he had seen him. But he was not positive of a certain.