85
Oklahoma Writers‘ project
He done some kind. of trading in Jackson, Mississip,~i, and he wouJÀ be gone three or four days at a time, but I never did imow viLat kind. of trading it was.

	About the time he corne home to stay I seen the, first Ku Klux I ever seen one night. I was going aown the road in the moonlight end. I heard. a hog grunting out in the bushes at the siöe of the road.. I jest~wa1k right on and. in a little ways I hear another hog in some more bushes. This time I stoD and~ listen, and. they‘s another hog grunts across the road, and. about that time two mens dressed UI) in long white sidrts steps out into the road. in front of mel I was so scared. the goose bi~mps jump up all over me ‘cause

I d.g~~ imow what they isL They didn‘t say a word to ‘ne, but jest walked on Dast me and. went on back the way I had come. Then I see two more mens step out of the woods and. I rim from that as fast as I can go!

	I act Miss Kate what they is and. she say they Ku Klux, and. I better not go walking off down the road any more. I seen them two, three times after that, though, but they was riding hosses them times.

	I stayed at Mr. John‘s place two more years, and. he got so grimpy and. his rife got so mean I make up my mind. to run off. I bundle up my clothes in a little bund.le and hide them, and. then I wait until Miss Kate take the children and. go off somewhere, and. I light oat on foot. I bad. me a piece of that hard. money what Master Dr. Alexander had. give me one time at Christmas. I had. kept it all that t me and. nobody knowei I had. it ‚ not even Joanna. Old. Doctor told. me it wa~3 fifty dollars, and. I thought I could. live on it for a while.

	.	I never had. been away from tbat place, not even to another plant— ation in all the four years I was with the Deesons, and. I didntt know which—
a—way to ~o, so I jest started. west.