Who dun tol' yo'? I don't believe nobody tol' yo'! You get away from me white man! Her voice was angry and very loud. Instantly a whole room full of brown eyes were focused on Millie -- Millie , who had broken her vow and was talking to a white man. Then there was a rush forward to Millie's defense, with the bar-keep and the colored woman's daughter elbowing their way through a gathering black semicircle. Much explaining was necessary on the part of the interviewer, and it was some little time before Millie , under protest, let fall a few scattering bits of information: She was born on the Salado Creek "a pace (six miles) out of San Antone"; her masters, "the Childers ," owned three slaves, herself and her mother and father, and she was "whipped all of de time. What do you mean -- spanked? Spanked nothin'! I got beat most to death. I got put up again' a post and layed onto with a cowhide the size of dat." She made a two inch circle with her thumb and finger. "Many's the time I drops -- I thought I was dead. Why did they whip you? Jes 'cose they could, I guess. They're all dead now and I's a-livin' and waitin' for Glory; and when I go I won't be seein' any of them. And the Lord has spared me and he didn't spare them - They is gone where the Good Shepard has sent them to be slaves for the devil . Christmas and biscuits? We never had any. We didn't have food of no account -- no meat or nothin', just milk, and we would get a-hold of a egg once in a while. Us and the hogs got what milk they couldn't eat. We never had nothin' that was happy. Do you remember what kind of houses you lived in? Sure. We had timber rail house. No beds in it. We slep' on the floor on a pallet. We didn't have no chair and we didn't have no mirror. I didn't knowd what I looked like 'til I was free. What did you think when you first saw yourself in a mirror? Were you surprised to learn what you looked like? Yes, sir, I was right well surprised," said Millie , with coy embarrassment. Did anybody beside yourself discover you were nice to look at, Millie ? I 'spose they did," she tittered. "James Manuel . I's married him. He was a soldier. He was out on the frontier. He was under Major Davis and Major Compton and Major Geedes . I visits him at Fort Stockton and at Fort Davis. After a little bit, he comes back to San Antonio and gets a job with the railroad . No, sir, I don' 'member any songs. But I used to do a right smart bit of singing, but not till I gets free. Then we used to sing. We didn't have no church. We would gather at one anothers' houses and pray and sing. All night, sometimes, we would pray and sing. Clothes? What you mean? When we got free?  Oh we didn't have no clothes before we got free, except what my mother makes on a loom out of cotton. I didn't knowd what shoes was on my own feet. I used to see white chillens with shoes and stockings and I wanted shoes and stockings. I 'members I got a pair of shoes and stockings when I was free. They was give to me. They was new, the stockings was. Who gave them to you Millie , a white or a black? Yes admitted Millie reluctantly, "a white. Some whites is good maybe." And then Millie added with an heroic effort to be just, "Some of the time white chillens was kind to me. Millie was softening, and the interviewer thought that it was a proper time to approach the subject of having her pose for a photograph. What!" she called angrily, "me get my picture taken and get arrested? No, I won't have no picture taken ... No, I don't care what yo' say. I wouldn't trust a white man no more than a rattler. I was given unto suffer. I got betrayed. And I aint goin' to trust yo' to take my picture, or no white man. And so the interview came to an end without a photograph and without a "good bye" or "call again" from Millie Manuel .