Oklahoma ~Triterst Project	...7.~ 59



	People think inaybeso dat am1 t so, but I know it Is!

	I was combing somebody1s hair one time —~ I aintt going tell who.-~‘ and. when I lift it up offtn her ears I nearly drap dead! Dar de rims cut ri ~it ~ n ~ em! But she was a marri ed. woman, and I think maybe so I t happen when she was a young ~al and got Into it • at one of dem drank dances.

	Dem Upper Creek took de marrying kind of light anyways. Iffen de yol]ngu_ns wanted to be man and wife and de old ones didntt care dey jest went a1~ead and dat was about all, tcepting some presents maybe. But de Baptists changed dat a lot amongst de young ones,

	I never forgit de day dat battle of de OI~VI1 War happen at Honey Springs! ola. Master jest had de green corn all In, and. u.s had been having a time gittirig it In, too, Jest de women was ail dat was left, tcause de men slaves had all slipped off and. left out. My uncle Abe done got u~ a bunch and gone to de North wid dem to gh, but I dn‘ t Imow den whar he went. He was in dat same battle, and after de War dey called him Abe Colonel. Most ail de slaves ~ ~ dat place done gone off a long time before dat wid dey‘ masters when dey go wid old man Gouge and a man named McDaniel.

	We had a big tree in de yard, and a grape vine swing in it for de little baby “Istidji“, and I was swinging him real early in de morning befot de sun up. De house set in a little patch of woods wid. de field in de back, but all out on de north side was a little open space, like a kind of prairie. I was swinging de baby, and all at once I seen somebody riding dis way t cross~ dat prairie ~ jest coming a~‘kiting and. e~.laying flat out on his hoes. When he see de house he begin to give de war whoop, “~a.~a-.a.«a-‘he—ah! „ When he gît close to de house he holler to git out de way tcause dey gwine be a big fi~t, and old. Master start rapping wid his cane and yelling to git some grab and blankets in de wagon right now!