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to your daddy in Ohio?” she asked me.
    “No, Misses, I ain’t never seen my daddy,” I said. “He didn’t live on our place.”
    “Who you know in Ohio then?” she said.
    “Just Mr. Brown,” I said.
    “Mr. Brown?” the white lady said. “Mr. Brown who?”
    “A Yankee soldier,” I said. “He said look him up when I get free.”
    “Oh, Lord, child,” the white lady said. “A Yankee soldier? You going to Ohio looking for a Yankee soldier called Brown? A Yankee soldier who might ’a’ been killed the day after he spoke to you?”
    “No Secesh bullet can kill Mr. Brown,” I said.
    The driver cracked his knuckles when I said that. I didn’t look up at him this time, but I heard his knuckles crack like dry wood.
    The white lady said, “Oh, child, child.”
    “How far that river out there go?” I asked her. “Me and this little boy got to cross it before we head on.”
    The white lady said, “Oh, child, child, there ain’t no Ohio. If there is, it ain’t what you done made up in your mind. Y’all come back with me. Y’all come back. I’ll treat you right.”
    “Me and this little boy started out for Ohio, and we going to Ohio,” I said.
    When we got through eating, I thanked her kindly, then I put my bundle on my head and stood up. Ned picked up his flint and iron, and we was ready to move on.
    “They got a bridge for that river out there?” I asked her.
    “A ferry,” she said.
    “What’s a ferry?” I asked her.
    The white lady said, “Oh, child, child, come back with me. There ain’t no Ohio.”
    “ ‘What’s a ferry?” I asked again.
    “A boat,” she said. “A boat that carry people and wagons. And you go’n need money to ride.”
    “We ain’t got no money,” I said. “Where we getting money from?”
    “Come back with me,” the white lady said.
    “Thank you for the food, Misses, but we going,” I said.
    Just before we left I saw one of the girls patting her mama on the shoulder, and I knowed she was crying.

Shelter for a Night
    We walked and walked; shadows getting longer and longer. I didn’t ask the white lady how far up the river the ferry was, so we had to keep going till we saw it. The Secesh and the Yankees had been fighting on this side of the river. I could see how the big cannon balls had knocked limbs out of trees. I could see how they had knocked small trees completely out of the ground. I saw strips of cloth, buttons, sometimes a cap half buried under dry leaves and dirt. But we kept on going. We stayed in the bushes all the time, just enough in the open to keep the river in sight.
    Late that evening I saw something like a big house floating on the river. I saw people and wagons on the other bank waiting for it to pick them up. I told Ned that’s what we was go’n ride on. Ned didn’t say a thing. Just following me with that flint and iron in his hands.
    By the time we had reached the landing place on this side, the ferry was heading back. I felt so funny and weak standing there, I thought these little dried up legs was go’n buckle under me. Walking through the swamps all time of night didn’t scare me nearly much as seeing this big old thing coming toward me now. I asked Ned if he was scared, too, but he shook his head. He wasn’t much for talking. The ferrylanded and the people and wagons got off. The people on this side got on, and we got on with them.
    “And where y’all think y’all going?” the captain asked. Right off I could see he was nothing but white trash.
    “Me and this little boy going to Ohio,” I said.
    “Ohio?” he said.
    He didn’t know no more about Ohio than I did. I told him Ohio was in the North.
    “Who y’all for?” he said.
    “We ain’t for nobody,” I said. “We free as you.”
    “All right, little free nigger, y’all got money?” he said. “It take a nickel to ride on here. Y’all got a nickel each?”
    “No sir.”
    “Then get right straight off,” he said.
    “We got potatoes and corn,” I