Growing up in Due West and trying to find odd jobs ws difficult; so when Aunt Sunnie offered me an opportunity to make $1 for picking 100 pounds of cotton, I jumped on it. The only stipulation was that I had to pick at least 100 pounds of cotton that day. As you probably know, that was a lot of cotton; but being young and eager, I knew that I could do that.

Well, I picked and picked in the hot sun. The thought of that dollar in my pocket kept me going. Finally, at the end of the day, I knew that I had picked at least 125 pounds. As I took my load to be weighed, I passed the bundle of cotton that Aunt Sunnie picked for the day. She had picked a pretty big bundle too.

I had big plans for the dollar and I already mentally spent the money. So I proudly waited to have my cotton weighed. To my surprise, I had only picked 85 pounds. I knew that I was 15 pounds short and it was too dark to go back to the fields. I was hurt.

The only thing I thought to do was to borrow a few pounds of cotton from Aunt Sunnie’s pile; and that was what I did. I went back to Aunt Sunnie’s cotton and help myself (borrowed a few pounds).

The next morning, I was Aunt Sunnie heading for the house and I knew that I was in big trouble. Sure enough, sunt sunnie told mamma what happened. Mamma called me and said “just wait until your father gets home!”

Mamma told the truth; when Papa got home, he took care of me.