Fruitless Prophesy
Walt Grindle of Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia
Recorded by Jean Bieder
Great-uncle of mine, he liked pepper – any form of pepper. He ‘as crazy about pepper. And his name was Hiram, and his wife was named Elizabeth. So she was always grumbling; she ‘as just a chronic grumbler.
Come spring of the year, and he told her one day, he said, “Elizabeth,” said, “it’s time you’s sowing pepper seeds now.”
She said, “Oh, Hiram, it’s no use.” Said, “I won’t live to see no pepper grow this time.”
He didn’t say any more about it.
So after wadn’t no pepper come that fall, when he had something he ’specially wanted pepper with, they set down to the table and he looked around and said, “Elizabeth, here you are still a-living, and no pepper.”
Recorded in 1975 by Jean Bieder from Walt Grindle, then sixty-eight, of Dahlonega, in Lumpkin County, 
“Fruitless Prophesy” is one of 250 authentic folk tales and stories recorded by the students of Dr. John Burrison at Georgia State University and published in Storytellers, Folktales & Legends from the South. Copyright by the University of Georgia Press and used by permission.
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Links:
More on John Burrison and his projects at Georgia State University and the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia at Sautee Nacoochee Center.