Free Slave Girl by Patricia C. McKissack Page A

gathered them. I got to sort with the grown women this year – putting the big, the middle
and the little apples in barrels. It aine the work I like – but I love to hear the women telling stories, remembering. I really like it when they tell a story ’bout my mama.
    Tuesday, September 20, 1859
    I’ve found a good hiding place for my diary in the hollow of a tree, just beyond the orchard. I feel safer coming here. My hiding place behind the kitchen was getting too
dangerous. I sure miss the way things used to be when Uncle Heb was alive and Aunt Tee ran the kitchen. They were far less troublesome times than these are now.
    Later the same day
    After the last meal, Missy said to me all syrupy sweet, “We been friends for a long, long time, but I don’t know you.”
    What was that supposed to mean? She knew me, sure.
    “I know your name,” she say, “and that you favour cornbread over biscuits. You’ll take red colour over green colour, and you like being off by yourself. But I don’t
know you, Clotee. Like what makes you happy or what makes you cry? You’re not like the others. You’re different. What makes you different?”
    I’d heard those words before. Miz Lilly had told me I was different, and she’d sent Missy digging for a bone.
    “Friends share secrets,” she say all friendly and nice. “Do you have one you want to share with me?”
    “No,” I said and got away from her as fast as I could. Missy is a tattler, sent straight from Miz Lilly. I know it.
    Wednesday, September 21, 1859
    I wish I could read Mr Harms as easy as I can read Missy and Eva Mae. There’s something ’bout Mr Harms that sets me to wondering. He looks perculiar and he acts
perculiar, so people don’t pay close attention to him. They don’t see him all the time watching, taking in everything that’s being said and done. But I do.
    Just a minute ago, I saw Mr Harms standing at the edge of the orchard, looking toward the woods and beyond the river. Just looking. Made me nervous – my diary being just a few feet from
where he was standing. Maybe I need to move it again.
    Aunt Tee and I have not spoke about my learning since I told her. Spicy put in that she’d seen Mr Harms watching them working in the fields. Just looking, saying nothing, just watching
them work.
    Monday, September 26, 1859
    I brought my pallet to sleep outside. The stars are so bright, I can almost hear them tinkling. But tonight I heard Rufus singing – his beautiful voice riding on the night
wind.
    Steal away
    Steal away
    Steal away home…
    Was that Mr Harms I just seen heading for the Quarters? I wonder who he be visiting this hour of the night? Oh well, white men sometimes visit the Quarters in the dark of night,
when their wives and mothers aine watching. I’m surprised. Mr Harms don’t ’pear to be that kind of man.
    Tuesday, September 27, 1859
    Miz Lilly left this morning to visit her daughter Clarissa in Richmond. She goes every September. She’ll be gone for several good weeks. These are always happy days for us
who work in the Big House.
    She usually takes William. And she’d promised to take me this year. But William flat wouldn’t go this time. And for some reason, she took Missy instead. Good. I’ll get a rest
from the both of them. I’m staying with Spicy and Aunt Tee the whole time, even though Eva Mae promises to tell when Miz Lilly gets back.
    Friday, September 30, 1859
    Miz Lilly’s gon’. Mas’er went sporting – will be gone until Monday. William is home, but he’s in his room sleeping. Mr Harms is asleep, too.
Belmont is a big play house when everybody’s gone.
    Spicy and me slipped up to Miz Lilly’s bedroom. We put on her jewellery and scarves and hats. We sat at her desk where there is all kinds of pretty paper, and pens and ink a-plenty. I took
enough to last me a good while.
    We heard a noise outside in the yard. At first I thought it might be one of the dogs or a raccoon. We quick-like jumped out of the bed