dey had to do.

Maybe my pappy and mammy run off and git free, or maybeso dey buy
demselves out, but anyway dey move away some time and my mammy's
master sell me to old man Tuskaya-hiniha when I was jest a little gal.
All I have to do is stay at de house and mind de baby.

Master had a good log house and a bresh shelter out in front like all
de houses had. Like a gallery, only it had de dirt for de flo' and
bresh for de roof. Dey cook everything out in de yard in big pots, and
dey eat out in de yard too.

Dat was sho' good stuff to eat, and it make you fat too! Roast de
green corn on de ears in de ashes, and scrape off some and fry it!
Grind de dry corn or pound it up and make ash cake. Den bile de
greens--all kinds of greens from out in de woods--and chop up de pork
and de deer meat, or de wild turkey meat; maybe all of dem, in de big
pot at de same time! Fish too, and de big turtle dat lay out on de
bank!

Dey always have a pot full of sofki settin right inside de house, and
anybody eat when dey feel hungry. Anybody come on a visit, always give
'em some of de sofki. Ef dey don't take none de old man git mad, too!

When you make de sofki you pound up de corn real fine, den pour in de
water an dreen it off to git all de little skin from off'n de grain.
Den you let de grits soak and den bile it and let it stand. Sometime
you put in some pounded hickory nut meats. Dat make it real good.

I don't know whar old Master git de cloth for de clothes, less'n he
buy it. Befo' I can remember I think he had some slaves dat weave de
cloth, but when I was dar he git it at de wagon depot at Honey
Springs, I think. He go dar all de time to sell his corn, and he raise
lots of corn, too.

Dat place was on de big road, what we called de road to Texas, but it
go all de way up to de North, too. De traders stop at Honey Springs
and old Master trade corn for what he want. He git some purty checkedy
cloth one time, and everybody git a dress or a shirt made off'n it. I
have dat dress 'till I git too big for it.

Everybody dress up fine when dey is a funeral. Dey take me along to
mind de baby at two-three funerals, but I don't know who it is dat
die. De Creek sho' take on when somebody die!

Long in de night you wake up and hear a gun go off, way off yonder
somewhar. Den it go again, and den again, jest as fast as dey can ram
de load in. Dat mean somebody dead. When somebody die de men go out in
de yard and let de people know dat way.