Well, momma was always going to see the sick, you know, down here on the
hill. Well Kate's mother was bad off and she told daddy that she wanted
to come down here—it was about, a little after supper. So he and her
come. And momma said when she got down here that Kate's mother was dying
and she hated to leave her. So her and daddy just stayed on 'till after
she died. And Kate went out on the porches in the summer time. And she
told daddy, she said now—she always called him Uncle Man—and she says
now, Uncle Man, I ain't got nobody, she says, momma's gone. And says, I
want to come and stay with you. Daddy said, well I got eight of my own,
but one more won't make no difference, just come on when you get ready.
Well her brothers wanted
Page 43 her to go and stay with a
Miss Boone—Miss Mary Ann Boone. Well she didn't want to stay up there
and they was having a week meeting down here at the church, and she told
Miss Boone that she wanted to come down here and go with us to church
that week. So she let her come. And Kate told momma, says Aunt Mary
Eliza, says I don't want to go back up there. Says, I'd rather you'd
kill me than to let me go back up there. So momma told her, says you
don't have to go back up there if you don't want to. Says, you could
stay here with the children. Says, we got a crowd, but we could take on
one more. So, Kate stayed that week. Miss Boone sent two men from up
here at the orphanage, up at Elon—down here to get her, carry her up
there. So they come up to the house. Momma told 'em, says, well I got
eight of my own, but I'm going to keep her. Says, I dare every one of
you to touch her, if you do, she says, I'll kill you. Says, I got the
gun right here on my machine. That's just what she told 'em. Says, now
you don't touch her. So she sent to the mill after daddy. He come to the
house and he told her, he said no, he says, you all can't take her away
from here. If you do, you'll pay me a week's board that you can't
afford.
[laughter]
So he just got rid of him. And him and mother went to Graham, he didn't
adopt her. He just went down there and had it fixed so that he could
keep her. With that they could afford to pay the board that he wanted
for her. And so she stayed at that house until she was eighteen year
old.