Martha snuggled closely to her younger sister Carla as the snow slipped through their slave quarters. The smell of pork rinds, stale in the air from dinner stung her nose, thus resulting in sniffling. She dreaded awaking and seeing daylight.

Daylight was a constant reminder of work yet to be completed from the previous day. Martha nudged Carla and they began dressing for another day of hard work.

The cotton field with pearly white sprouts glimmered in the winter's sun. The clothing was thin and often frayed. The slippers that hung over Carla's toes where barely warmth at all.

The sharp winter air cut along the holes in Martha's socks as she headed to the master's house. The 100 acre plantation was full of chores and slaves to bring in various yields of cotton, peanuts, livestock, blacksmith iron works and tasks for neighboring plantations.

Martha felt lucky cleaning the 6,000 square foot plantation house. The field was a harsh place where sounds of exhaustion and humiliation rung out for all to hear.

Even though her master would scold and brandish her for any mistakes seen throughout the plantation home, she found pleasure in cleaning the attic. The attic was full of books, maps, old clothes and family heirlooms.

Martha would get lost in the attic until she heard her master calling her. As she stumbled from the attic she could hear the dismay in his voice. Martha was summoned to deliver letters to the neighboring plantation. The walks were always accompanied with written documentation of the slaves name and description.

During the brisk walk along the short path Martha noticed a huge tree with a large hollow. In amazement, she wondered why she never noticed it before during the numerous trips . Trips to deliver quick notes from the master was brisk.

She peeped inside the hollow of the tree and just like she predicted it was hollow all the way to the bottom. Her hands scooped inside to examine if hazelnuts were leftover from a squirrel's clumsy grasp.

Martha hurried to the plantation before slave patrollers approached. Trouble would soon follow if she made one mistake along the path.

Martha returned to her master's plantation to clean and attend to Abby. Abby, the six year old was the only child of the masters. Abby was very mischievous but smart enough to share alphabets and letter sounds. Consequently, by playing school Martha learned how to read. After her tasks, Martha would follow Abby up the stairs to the attic.