down the back. The dresses was red and black small checks. Mary lernt
her piece at school. We had singing and speeches and a big dinner at the
school closin'.

"Mr. John Moore went to war and was killed at the beginnin' of the first
battle soon as he got there. They had a sayin, 'You won't last as long
as John Moore when he went to war.'

"Mr. Criss Moore was kickin' a nigger boy. Old Miss say, 'Criss, quit
kickin' him, you hurt him.' He say, 'I ain't hurtin' him, I'm playin'
wid him!' White boys played wid nigger boys when they come round the
house. Glad to meet up to get to play.

"Mr. Criss Moore, Jr. (John Moore's grandson) is a doctor way up North
and so is Mr. Daniel Johnson, Jr. One of em in Washington I think. I
could ask Miss Betty Carter when I go back to Mississippi.

"When I left Mississippi Mr. Criss hated to see me go. Mr. Johnson say,
'I wanted all our niggers buried on our place.' He say to Jim, my
husband, 'Now when she die you let me know and I'll help bring her back
and bury her in the old graveyard.' When my papa died Mr. Johnson had
the hearse come out and get him and take him in it to the graveyard. He
was buried by mama and nearly all the Johnson, Moore, and Reed (or Reid)
niggers buried there. My husband is buried here (Hazen, Arkansas) but he
was a Curlett.

"Papa set out apple trees on the old Johnson place, still bearin'
apples. The old farm place is forty-eight miles from Tupelo and three
miles from Houlka, Mississippi.