MICHELSON. ] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FOX WOMAN. 299 
Well, when I was nine years old I was able to help my mother. 
It was in spring when planting was begun that I was told, “ Plant 
something to be your own.” Sure enough I did some planting. 
When they began to hoe weeds where it was planted, I was told 
“Say! You weed in your field.’”’ My hoe was a little hoe. And 
soon the hoeing would cease. I was glad. 
When (we) ceased bothering where it was planted, I was unwilling 
to do anything. But when I would be told, ‘When you finish this, 
then you may go and play with the little girls,’ I was willmg. I then 
surely played violently with the children. We played tag’ as we 
enjoyed it. 
And at the time when what we planted was mature, I was told, 
“Say! You must try to cook § what you have raised.’ Surely then 
I tried to cook. After I cooked it, my parents tasted it. ‘“‘ What she 
has raised tastes very well,” they said tome. ‘And she has cooked 
it very carefully,” I would be told. I was proud when they said 
that tome. As a matter of fact I was just told so that I might be 
encouraged to cook. And I thought, ‘It’s probably true.” 
And when I was ten years old I ceased caring for dolls. But I 
still liked to swim. But when I said to my mother, “May I go 
swimming ?’’ she said to me, ‘““Yes. You may wash your- grand- 
mother’s waist for her, and you may wash mine also,” I was told. 
I was made to wash (anything) little. Surely I would not feel like 
asking, ‘May I go swimming,” as I was afraid of the washing. Now 
as a matter of fact the reason why I was treated so was to encourage 
me to learn how to wash. 
“That is why I treat you like that, so that you will learn how to 
wash,” my mother told me. ‘No one continues to be taken care of 
forever. The time soon comes when we lose sight of the one who 
takes care of us. I never got to know how my mother looked. My 
father’s sister brought me up. To-day I treat you just as she treated 
me. She did not permit me to be just fooling around. Why, even 
when I was eight years old I knew how to cook very well. When 
my father’s sister was busy with something, I did the cooking,” she 
said tome. I did not believe her when she said that, for I was then 
ten years old and was just beginning to cook well, and I knew how 
to sew but I was poor at it. At that time when my mother woke 
up, she said to me, ‘‘Wake up, you may fetch some water.’ And go 
get some little dry sticks so we may start the fire,’ she said to me. 
When I was unwilling I was nevertheless compelled. That is the 
way I was always treated. 
