Julius Lester

From "Where the Sun Lives," p. 39-40

"When the overseer rings the bell to wake the field hands, it is not daybreak yet. Sometimes, if Mistress Phillips has had a bad night, I am awake and hear the bell. I am jealous of the field hands, because they have slept through the night. Their work has a beginning and an end. Sometimes mine has pauses.

"Last night Mistress Phillips's fever came back. I sleep on the floor at the foot of the bed. When I was a little girl, I slept lying across her feet to keep them warm, a thin blanket over me. She turned from her back to her stomach to her side throughout the night, and I would get kicked.

"I'm bigger and older now. Mammy Sukey said she thinks I'm eighteen. In the winter I sleep in the bed with Mistress Phillips to help her stay warm. Before Master moved to the other bedroom, I slept in the bed with both of them. In the summer I sleep on the floor. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to sleep without being waked, to sleep through the night and through the day and through the night again."