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5.

mother tried to raise me as best she could until I left home and then gave me the admonition at parting, that I should try to be "square". "Square", I have tried to be and as to being successful I must let others say.

Enough said about my childhood. After I was released from slavery I went to Harris county.  There I commenced the cowboy life in earnest. In babyhood days the call of the winds and the wild-eyed cattle appeared to me. I seemed to understand them as no one else. Even though they looked wild to others, they looked docile and tame to me. They were my silent friends and I loved to be with them. That made me take up the life I have lead probably more than anything else. I loved to drive cattle on the open plains and to ride the worse bucking [[strikethrough]] "bronch" that could be found.

In the early days Houston was quite a cattle market. Often-times [[strikethrough]] I drove cattle to this market. In those days a cowboy did not have a dozen different mounts, but was lucky, if he had two horses and a pack mule. In that time horses were hard to get that one could handle to do the business. The cowboy who had more to eat than hardtack and bacon was fortunate. We usually camped just where sunset found us and cooked our meat over a fire on a forked stick and sometimes we had to eat it raw when we were shorthanded or had signs of theives or Indians. Both infested that part of Texas at that time and either was mean enough to do anything.

In [[strikethrough]] Houston at that time, was a Dutchman by the name of Stugsia. I worked for Paine and Boone, both paid my wages. One branded his cattle P A N E and the other used B O O N. They raised cattle on Cypress creek and had big ranches. [[strikethrough]] Many a time on the drive with cattle to Houston I had some very exciting experiences, But I will tell more about that later. I worked for these people from 1865 to 1870. From there I drifted to Washington county where I worked for Holmes and Beaver. I was with them for two years. At this time I did nothing for them but break horses. I never saw the horse that I was afraid to ride and never was I [[strikethrough]] seriously injured