2

-2-

"Jaydy, you hush up singin that nasty song. Fokes ull think we're Yankees."

Jaydy cut short his melody, and grinned amiably as he greeted the
visitor.

"Well I declare!" the trailerite mused. "So you write stuff to print in
books. Well, well! That seems like a curus kind-a trade to work at. I never
thought uv a body follerin that fer a livin, I read a book wunst. Hit wuz
about a man named Robinson Crusoe. That feller shore had his sef a time on
that island." He laughed and went on:

"Well, I aint fitten to go in no book, but I wuz bawn an raised a Floridy
Cracker. Mostly in the woods and swamps. But I ben up Nawth sense last June.
Jist got back this fur, thank the good Lawd. I'm a-headin fer Lee County#
My name! Hit's J. D. Abbin."

He was asked what the initials J. D. stood for, and replied firmly:

"That's my whole front name, jist J. D. But people calls me Jaydy fer
short. I ast my maw one time when I wuz a kid if J. D. meant some other name.
But she said no, she named me jist that, after he uncle, J. D. Stokes, an he
never had no other name. A right many fellers in Floridy's named jist with
letters thataway."

"What did you do up North?"

"Me an the ole woman went off up yonder to Dee-troit to git me a job in
Ole Man Ford's factory, me bein a jack-leg mechanic fum workin round cars an
sawmills. Well, I gotta job nuttin fer bout six months, but got laid off in
Dee-cember. So I built us this little ole piece-a trailer, an we lit a shuck
fer Floridy."