and got on an old cow that she used to milk--Dolly, she called it. She
rode away from the plantation, because she knew they would kill her if
she stayed.

"My mother was named Luvenia Polk. She got plumb away and stayed away.
On account of that, I was raised by my mother. She went to Atchison,
Kansas--rode all through them woods on that cow. Tore her clothes all
off on those bushes.

"Once a man stopped her and she said, 'My folks gone to Kansas and I
don't know how to find 'em.' He told her just how to go.

"My father was an Indian. 'Way back in the dark days, his mother ran
away, and when she came up, that's what she come with--a little Indian
boy. They called him 'Waw-_hoo_'che.' His master's name was Tom Polk.
Tom Polk was my mother's master too. It was Tom Polk's boy that my
mother beat up.

"My father wouldn't let nobody beat him either. One time when somethin'
he had did didn't suit Tom Polk--I don't know what it was--they cut
sores on him that he died with. Cut him with a raw-hide whip, you know.
And then they took salt and rubbed it into the sores.

"He told his master, 'You have took me down and beat me for nothin', and
when you do it again, I'm goin' to put you in the ground.' Papa never
slept in the house again after that. They got scared and he was scared
of them. He used to sleep in the woods.

"They used to call me 'Waw-hoo'che' and 'Red-Headed Indian Brat.' I got
in a fight once with my mistress' daughter,--on account of that.