with 'im. They stayed about two
years. But the rest was just like birds, they jes' flew.

"I went with my father and he hired me out for two years, to a man named
Riley, over on the Seco. I did most everythin', worked the field and was
house rustler, too. But I had a good time there. After I left 'im, I
came to D'Hanis. I worked on a church house they was buildin'. Then I
went back to my father and worked for him a long time, freightin' cotton
to Eagle Pass. I used horses and mules and hauled cotton and flour and
whiskey and things like that.

"I met my wife down on Black Creek, and I freighted two years after we
was married. We got married so long ago, but in them days anything would
do. You see, these days they are so proud, but we was glad to have
anything. I had a black suit to be married in, and a pretty long shirt,
and I wore boots. She wore a white dress, but in them days they didn'
have black shoes. Yes'm, they had a dance, down here on Black Creek.
Danced half the night at her house and two men played the fiddle. Eat?
We had everythin' to eat, a barbecued calf and a hog, too, and all kinds
of cakes and pies. Drink? Why, the men had whiskey to drink and the
women drank coffee. We married about 7 or 8 in the evenin' at her house.
My wife's name was Sarah Ann Brackins.

"Did I see a ghost? Well, over yonder on the creek was a ghost. It was a
moonlight night and it passed right by me and it never had no head on it
a-tall. It almost breshed me. It kep' walkin' right by side of me. I
shore saw it and I run like a good fellow. Lots of 'em could see
wonnurful sights then and I heered lots of noises, but that's the only
ghost I ever seen.

"No, I never knowed nothing 'bout charms. I've seen 'em have a rabbit
heel or coon heel for good luck. I seen a woman one time that was
tricked, or what I'd call poisoned. A place on her let, it was jes' the
shape of these little old striped lizards. It was somethin' they called
'trickin it,' and a person that knowed to trick you would put it there
to make you suffer the balance of your days. It would go 'round your leg
clear to the hip and be between the skin and the flesh. They called it
the devil's work."

420118

[Illustration: James Green]

JAMES GREEN is half American Indian and half Negro. He was born a
slave to John Williams, of Petersburg, Va., became a "free boy",
then was kidnapped and sold in a Virginia slave market to a Texas
ranchm