a was
very unhappy. She did not enjoy the Smith family and longed for her old
friends back in the Gardner home.

One night the little girl gathered together her few personal belongings
and started back to her old home.

Afraid to travel the highway the child followed a path she knew through
the forest; but alas, she found the way long and beset with perils. A
number of uncivil Indians were encamped on the side of the Cumberland
mountains and a number of the young braves were out hunting that night.
Their stealthy approach was heard by the little fugitive girl but too
late for her to make an escape. An Indian called "Buck" captured her and
by all the laws of the tribe was his own property. She lived for almost
a year in the teepe with Buck and during that time learned much about
Indian habits.

When Malvina was missed from her new home, Mr. Smith went to the Gardner
plantation to report his loss, not finding her there a wide search was
made for her but the Indians kept her thoroughly concealed. Miss Puss,
however, kept up the search. She knew the Indians were encamped on the
mountain and believed she would find the girl with them. The Indians
finally broke camp and the members of the Gardner home watched them
start on their journey and Miss Puss soon discovered Malvina among the
other maidens in the procession.

The men of the Gardner plantation, white and black, overtook the Indians
and demanded the girl be given up to them. The Indians reluctantly gave
her to them. Miss Puss Gardner took her back and Mr. Gardner paid Mr.
Smith the original purchase price and Malvina was once more installed in
her old home.

Malvina Gardner was not yet twelve years of age when she was captured by
the Indians and was scarcely thirteen years of age when she became the
mother of Joseph William, son of the uncivil Indian, "Buck". The child
was born in the Gardner home and mother and child remained there. The
mother was a good slave and loved the members of the Gardner family and
her son and she were loved by them in return.

Puss Gardner married a Mr. Mooney and Mr. Gardner allowed her to take
Joseph William to her home. The Mooney estate was situated up on the
Carthridge road and some of Joseph William's most vivid memories of
slavery and the curse of bondage embrace his life's span with the
Mooneys.

One story that the aged man relates is of an encounter with an eagle and
follows: "George Irish, a white boy near my own age, was t