dem days.

I never had much work to do. I helped 'round de house when I wanted to
and I run errands for Miss Betsy. I liked to do things for her. When I
got a little bigger my brother and I toted cool water to de field for
de hands.

Didn't none of Master Holmes' niggers work when dey was sick. He allus
saw dat dey had medicine and a doctor iffen dey needed one. 'Bout de
only sickness we had was chills and fever. In de old days we made lots
of our own medicine and I still does it yet. We used polecat grease
for croup and rheumatism. Dog-fennel, butterfly-root, and
life-everlasting boiled and mixed and made into a syrup will cure
pneumonia and pleurisy. Pursley-weed, called squirrel physic, boiled
into a syrup will cure chills and fever. Snake-root steeped for a long
time and mixed with whiskey will cure chills and fever also.

Our clothes was all made of homespun. De women done all de spinning
and de weaving but Miss Betsy cut out all de clothes and helped wid de
sewing. She learned to sew when she was away to school and she learnt
all her women to sew. She done all the sewing for de children. Master
Holmes bought our shoes and we all had 'em to wear in de winter. We
all went barefoot in de summer.

He kept mighty good teams and he had two fine saddle horses. He and
Miss Betsy rode 'em all de time. She would ride wid him all over de
farm and dey would go hunting a lot, too. She could shoot a gun as
good as any man.

Master Holmes sure did love his wife and children and he was so proud
of her. It nearly killed 'em both to give up de little boy and girl. I
never did hear of him taking a drink and he was kind to everybody,
both black and white, and everybody liked him. Dey had lots of company
and dey never turned anybody away. We lived about four miles from de
ferry on Red River on de Texas Road and lots of travelers stopped at
our house.

We was 'lowed to visit de colored folks on de Eastman and Carter
plantations dat joined our farm. Eastman and Carter was both white men
dat married Indian wives. Dey was good to dey slaves, too, and let 'em
visit us.

Old Uncle Kellup (Caleb) Colbert, Uncle Billy Hogan, Rev. John Carr,
Rev. Baker, Rev. Hogue, and old Father Murrow preached for de white
folks all de time and us colored folks went to church wid dem. Dey had
church under brush arbors and we set off to ourselves but we could
take part in de singing and sometimes a colored person would get happy
and pray and shout b