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	“None of the slaves ran away. I have seen and heard iitar~y patro11ers~, but they never whipped any of Mason‘s slaves. The method of conveying news, you tell me and I tell you, but be careful, no troubles between whites and blacks.

	“After work was done, the slaves would smoke, sing, tell ghost stories and tales, danc~es, music, home-made fiddles. Saturday was work day like any other day. ~e had all legal holidays. Christmas momin~ we went to the bi~ house and got presents and had a big time ai]. day.

	“At corn shucking all the slaves frôm other plantations would corne to the barn, the fiddler would sit on top of the highest barrel of corn, and play all kinds of songs, a barrel of cider, jug of whiskey, one man to dish out a drink of liquor each hour, cider when wanted, We had supper at twelve, roast

pig for everybody, apple sauce, hominy, and corn bread. We went back to shucking.
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The carts from other farms would b~ there to haul it to the corn crib, dance would

start after the corn was stored, we danced until daybreak.

	“The only games ~ we played were marbles ‚ mumbl e pegs and ring plays. We sang London Bridge.

	“When we wanted to meet at nicht we had an old conk, we blew that, We all woul d meet on the bank o f the Potomac River and sing acre s s the river to the slaves in Virginia, and they would sing back to us.

	~tSome people say thereare no ghosts, but I saw one and I ara satisLied, I saw a~ old lady who was dead, she was only five feet from me, I met her face to face. She was a white woman, I knew her, I liked to tore the door off the hinges getting away.

	“My master‘s name was Thomas Mason, he was a man of weak mental disposition, his mother managed the affairs. 11e was kind, Mrs. Mason had a good disposition, she never permitted the slaves to be punished. The ir~ain house was very large with porches on three sides. No children, no overseer.