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"I'm still looking for the right man."

Both people nodded, but the look on their faces let me know that being childless was so alien to them that it was beyond comprehension, then Jeremias continued his tale.

"Well, after Huldah earned enough to buy her some shoes and made herself one of them suits, she moved on and ended up goin' to work for a rich white man in Atlanta."

"That white man what was..." Esther began before her husband interrupted her, his words accompanied with a loving touch to her arm. 

"Let's not go there right yet, Mrs. Jefferson."

Esther nodded and resumed her knitting.

"Well, me and my Momma were right proud of Huldah, but that meant that I couldn't leave my Momma.  She needed somebody to tend to her.  We got a little help from some neighbors ever now and again, but we had a hard time of it I'm here to tell you."

"Tell her how you got in the egg business, Jeremias," coaxed the wife.

"Well, one day this farmer, Mr. Noah Washington..."

"He had the farm right over that rise yonder," said Esther as she took her eyes off her knitting to nod toward the hill at which she had been glancing so often.

"Anyhow, we rented this house from him.  One day he come over and sat on this very porch and said to me," his voice altered, "Listen, boy, it seems to me you're big enough and got enough sense to start earnin' you some money.  I'd be happy to, I said.  If only I knew how.  He said, I know how you could earn a pretty penny.  How's that I asked.  And he said Start sellin' eggs.  There is free range chickens everywhere if you know where to look and them free range eggs is not only good eatin', but they is free.  They got thicker shells than store bought and last longer.  Everybody knows that.  Then he said, I can get you started by lettin' you gather them on my property, otherwise they would  just get stolen by the hobos.  All I'd expect in payment is a few of them eggs from time to time.  So I said Well, that's fine, but where could I learn to find them eggs?  And he said, That's easy enough, I'll show you.  I done gathered them eggs all my life, but I'm getting too old to traipse around the county lookin' for 'em.  He also told me that I didn't need much in the way of equipment, and until I could afford to buy my own, I could use his."

"Jeremias worked like a field hand from the get go and Mr. Washington was mighty pleased with him," she said.

"Mr. Washington used to warn me all the time, Don't try to sell no cracked eggs, eat them your ownself.  You got to earn people's trust.  Once you got that, you'll have their business for as long as you want it.  And I took his advice, too.  Oh, it was slow goin' at first, but I was able to sell most of what I gathered and pretty soon my business picked up.  Then I took scrap pieces of tin roof and laid it out where them chickens hung out.  Them chickens liked that tin.  It kept them out of the rain don't you see.  Well, after that I knew where to find most of them eggs.  I helped them out and they helped me out."

"I'm sorry," I said.  "But I don't know what a free range chicken is."

"It's like feral hogs or feral dogs.  They get loose from people and hook up with some other like minded creatures and they live wild instead of on the farm where they come from," said Jeremias. 

“Kind of like some young'uns is the way I got it figured,” lamented Esther as she wiped another tear away.

"After a few generations, them things is as wild as anything you ever seen."