d on our place. It a slow job to git dat
lint out de cotton and I's gone to sleep many a night, settin' by de
fire, pickin' lint. In bad weather us sot by de fire and pick lint and
patch harness and shoes, or whittle out something, dishes and bowls and
troughs and traps and spoons.

"All us chillen weared lowel white duckin', homemake, jes' one garment.
It was de long shirt. You couldn't tell gals from boys on de yard.

"I's twelve when us am freed and for awhile us lived on Marse Bob
Wortham's place, on Chalk Bluff, on Horseshoe Bend. After de freedom
war, dat old Brazos River done change its course up 'bove de bend, and
move to de west.

"I marries Nancy Clark in 1879, but no chilluns. Dere plenty deer and
bears and wild turkeys and antelopes here den. Dey's sho' fine eatin'
and wish I could stick a tooth in one now. I's seed fifty antelope at a
waterin' hole.

"Dere plenty Indians, too. De Rangers had de time keepin' dem back. Dey
come in bright of de moon and steals and kills de stock. Dere a ferry
'cross de Brazos and Capt. Ross run it. He sho' fit dem Indians.

"Dem days everybody went hossback and de roads was jes' trails and
bridges was poles 'cross de creeks. One day us went to a weddin'. Dey
sot de dinner table out in de yard under a big tree and de table was a
big slab of a tree on legs. Dey had pewter plates and spoons and chiny
bowls and wooden dishes. Some de knives and forks was make out of bone.
Dey had beef and pork and turkey and some antelope.

"I knows 'bout ghostes. First, I tells you a funny story. A old man
named Josh, he purty old and notionate. Every evenin' he squat down
under a oak tree. Marse Smith, he slip up and hear Josh prayin, 'Oh,
Gawd, please take pore old Josh home with you.' Next day, Marse Smith
wrop heself in a sheet and git in de oak tree. Old Josh come 'long and
pray, 'Oh, Gawd, please come take pore old Josh home with you.' Marse
say from top de tree, 'Poor Josh, I's come to take you home with me.'
Old Josh, he riz up and seed dat white shape in de tree, and he yell,
'Oh, Lawd, not right now, I hasn't git forgive for all my sins.' Old
Josh, he jes' shakin' and he dusts out dere faster den a wink. Dat
broke up he prayin' under dat tree.

"I never studied cunjurin', but I knows dat scorripins and things dey
cunjures with am powerful medicine. Dey uses hair and fingernails and
tacks and dry insects and worms and bat wings and sech. Mammy allus tie
a leather string round de