You ever have any brothers or sisters growing up?

I had one there for a little while. But, uh, it didn't get old enough for me to play with it.

Why not? It die?

Yes, Sir.

Why?

It got born too early. My mother and father made it come out too early some how or other.

So it died when it came out?

My daddy came out to the shed and got me. He said, "Here, take this and throw it away", and he handed me a towel with something or another in it. Well I started for that barrel and I opened up the towel 'cause there was a noise. Something a-moving around in there. The towel was all bloody-like all around it there. It was a lil' ol' baby not no bigger than a squirrel.

A girl or a boy?

It was a little ol' boy.

You threw it in the trash barrel?

Well that didn't seem right to me, so I went in the shed and got me a shoe box and emptied out all the washers and nuts and screws and whatnot that were in it and I takened the little fellar and put him inside the box and buried him right there in a corner of the yard. That seemed more proper to me, I reckon.

Was it still alive when you buried it?

I heared it a-cryin' through that box.

That don't seem right. Seems like you would have kept him and taken care of him if he was your brother.

I wasn't but 6 or 8. I don't reckon I knew what to do. I didn't know how to care for no baby. My mother and father didn't want him and they learned me to do what they told me. These days I reckon it's better to give him back to the Good Lord anyhow.