anch I worked on after I left McNelly was on the =Banqueta= on
the =Agua Dulce= Creek for the Miley boys, putting up a pasture fence. I
worked there about two months, diggin' post holes. From there to the
King Ranch for about four months, breaking horses. I kept travelin' east
till I got back to Wharton, where my mother was. She died there in
Wharton. I didn't stay with her very long. I went down to =Tres Palacios=
in Matagorda County. I did pasture work there, and cattle work. I worked
for Mr. Moore for twelve years. Then he moved to Stockdale and I worked
for him there eight years. From there, after I got through with Mr.
Moore, I went back to =Tres Palacios= and I worked there for first one man
and then another. I think we have been here at Uvalde for about
twenty-three years.

"I've been the luckiest man in the world to have gone through what I
have and not get hurt. I have never had but two horses to fall with me.
I could ride all day right now and never tire. You never hear me say,
'I'm tired, I'm sleepy, I'm hongry.' And out in camp you never see me
lay down when I come in to camp, or set down to eat, and if I =do=, I set
down on my foot. I always get my plate in my hand and eat standin' up,
or lean against the wagon, maybe.

"When Cap'n. McNelly taken sick and resigned, I traveled east and picked
up jobs of work on ranches. The first work after I left the Rio Grande
was on the =Banqueta=, and then I went to work on the King Ranch about
fifty miles southeast (?) of Brownsville. It wasn't fixed up in them
days like it is now. But the territory is like it was then. They worked
all Meskin hands. They were working about twenty-five or thirty Meskins
at the headquarters' ranch. And the main =caporal= was a Meskin. His wages
was top wages and he got twelve dollars a month. And the hands, if you
was a real good hand, you got seven or eight dollars a month, and they
would give you rations. They would furnish you all the meat you wanted
and furnish you corn, but you would have to grind it yourself for bread.
You know, like the Meskins make on a =metate=. You could have all the
home-made cheese you want, and milk. In them days, the Meskins didn't
have sense enough to make butter. I seen better times them days than I
am seein' now. We just had a home livin'. You could go out any time and
kill you anything you wanted--turkeys, hogs, javalinas, deer, 'coons,
'possums, quail.

"I'll tell you about a Meskin ranch I worked on.