ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

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	LULLABIES	151
	Dey caught me wid de skillet, Dey caught me wid de led, An' dey caught me wid de gal Cookin' short'nin⁵ bread. Paid six dollars for de skillet, Six dollars for de led, Stayed six months in jail, Eatin' short^,nm^, bread. Chorus Mrs. D. M. Diggs sends another slightly different stanza from Lynchburg, Virginia. She says it is a very old song that she learned from black mammies, who had sung many little ones to sleep by it.
	SHORT'NIN' BREAD


	Run here, Mammy, run here quick! Short'nin' bread done made me sick! Mammy get-a short'nin', short'inn', short'nm', Mammy get-a short'nin', short'nin⁵ bread. It might be explained for the benefit of those who have never lived in the South that "short'nin' bread," or "cracklin' bread," as it is as often called, is considered a great delicacy among colored people. It is a kind of bread made very rich by having bacon gravy and bits of crisp bacon mixed in it. "Cracklin' bread" was made on the plantation at "hog-killing time," we are told. It is still heard of, though not so popular now as in earlier times. Professor and Mrs. W. H. Thomas — of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, of Texas — have heard little plantation darkies of the present day sing: