ssom place come by and tell
us we's free, and us stop workin'. Dey tell us to go on workin' and de
boss man he come up and he say he gwine knock us off de fence if we
don't go to work. Mistus come out and say, 'Ain't you gwine make dem
niggers go to work?' He send her back in de house and he call for de
carriage and say he goin' to town for to see what de gov'ment goin' do.
Nex' day he come back and say, 'Well, you's jus' as free as I is.'

"He say to me I could stay and cook for dem, and he give me five dollar
a month and a house to stay in and all I kin eat. I stays de month to do
dere work.

"After dat I wishes sometimes dat old times is back 'gain. I likes to be
free, but I wasn't used to it and it was hard to know how to do. I
'members de dances we has in de old times, when we makes de music with
banjo and other things. Some de good massas 'lowed de niggers dance in
de back yard and if we goes over dere without de pass de patterroles
gits us maybe. One time my papa he runnin' from dem patterroles and he
run slap into de young massa and he say, 'Oh, you ain't no nigger, I kin
tell by de smell.'

"Dat mind me of de ghost story dey used to tell 'bout de ghosties what
live in de big bridge down in de hollow. De niggers day say dat ghostie
make too much noise, with all he hollerin' and he rattlin' dem chain. So
dat night one us niggers what dey call Charlie, he say he ain't 'fraid
and he gwineter git him a ghostie, sho' 'nough. Us didn't believe him
but purty soon us hears right smart wrastlin' with de chains and
hollerin' down by de bridge and after 'while he come and say he git de
best of dat ghostie, 'cause he ain't got strength like de man.

"Me and my old man us have twelve chillens altogedder. My husban' he
come from South Car'lina whar dey eats cottonseed. I used to joke him
'bout it. I allus say Virginny de best, 'cause I come from dere.

420039

[Illustration: James Boyd]

JAMES BOYD was born in Phantom Valley, Indian Territory, in an
Indian hut. A man named Sanford Wooldrige stole him and brought him
to Texas, somewhere near Waco. James does not know his age, but
thinks he is a hundred years or more old. He now lives in Itasca,
Texas.

"I's born in dat Phantom Valley, in de Indian Territory, what am now
call Oklahoma. Us live in a Indian hut. My pappy Blue Bull Bird and
mammy Nancy Will. She come to de Indian Territory with Santa Anna, from
Mississippi, and pappy