The school was soon overcrowded with applicants, and Iola was forced to refuse numbers, because their quarters were too cramped.  The school was beginning to lift up the home, for Iola was not satisfied to teach her children only the rudiments of knowledge.  She had tried to lay the foundation of good character.  But the elements of evil burst upon her loved and cherished work.  One night the heavens were lighted with lurid flames, and Iola beheld the school, the pride and joy of her pupils and their parents, a smouldering ruin.  Iola gazed with sorrowful dismay on what seemed the cruel work of an incendiary’s torch.  While she sat, mournfully contemplating the work of destruction, her children formed a procession, and, passing by the wreck of their school, sang:—­

    “Oh, do not be discouraged,
       For Jesus is your friend.”

As they sang, the tears sprang to Iola’s eyes, and she said to herself, “I am not despondent of the future of my people; there is too much elasticity in their spirits, too much hope in their hearts, to be crushed out by unreasoning malice.”

CHAPTER XVIII.

SEARCHING FOR LOST ONES.

To bind anew the ties which slavery had broken and gather together the remnants of his scattered family became the earnest purpose of Robert’s life.  Iola, hopeful that in Robert she had found her mother’s brother, was glad to know she was not alone in her search.  Having sent out lines of inquiry in different directions, she was led to hope, from some of the replies she had received, that her mother was living somewhere in Georgia.

Hearing that a Methodist conference was to convene in that State, and being acquainted with the bishop of that district, she made arrangements to accompany him thither.  She hoped to gather some tidings of her mother through the ministers gathered from different parts of that State.

From her brother she had heard nothing since her father’s death.  On his way to the conference, the bishop had an engagement to dedicate a church, near the city of C——­, in North Carolina.  Iola was quite willing to stop there a few days, hoping to hear something of Robert Johnson’s mother.  Soon after she had seated herself in the cars she was approached by a gentleman, who reached out his hand to her, and greeted her with great cordiality.  Iola looked up, and recognized him immediately as one of her last patients at the hospital.  It was none other than Robert Johnson.

“I am so glad to meet you,” he said.  “I am on my way to C——­ in search of my mother.  I want to see the person who sold her last, and, if possible, get some clew to the direction in which she went.”

“And I,” said Iola, “am in search of my mother.  I am convinced that when we find those for whom we are searching they will prove to be very nearly related.  Mamma said, before we were parted, that her brother had a red spot on his temple.  If I could see that spot I should rest assured that my mother is your sister.”