"It was a Union gunboat, and ran under the water. You could see the
smoke. The white people said, 'That boat's goin' to carry some of these
niggers away from here one of these days.'

"And sure enough, it did carry one away.


Buried Treasure and a Runaway

"I went to the big gate one morning and there was a nigger named Charles
there.

"I said, 'What you doing out here so early this morning?'

"He said to me, 'You hush yo' mouth and get on back up to the house.'

"I went back to the house and told my mother, 'I saw Charles out there.'
That was before my mother ran away.

"My mother said, 'He's fixing to run away. And he's got a barrel of
money. And it belongs to the Doctor. 'Cause he and the Dr. went out to
bury it to keep the Yankees from getting it.'

"He ran away, and he took the money with him, too. He went out to Kansas
City and bought a home. We didn't think much of it, because we knew it
was wrong to do it. But Old Master Tom had done a heap of wrong too. He
was the first one spotted the boat that morning--Charles was. And he
went away on it.