I shall not in this book give to the public the details of my life as a wife of David Nation any more than possible.  He and I agreed in but few things, and still we did not have the outbreaks many husbands and wives have.  The most serious trouble that ever rose between us was in regard to Christianity.  My whole Christian life was an offense unto him, and I found out if I yielded to his ideas and views that I would be false to every true motive.  He saw that I resented this influence and it caused him to be suspicious and jealous.  I think my combative nature was largely developed by living with him, for I had to fight for everything that I kept.  About two years after we were married, we exchanged our mutual properties for seventeen hundred acres of land on the San Bernard River in Texas, part of which was a cotton plantation.  We knew nothing of the cultivation of cotton or of plantation life.  We took a car load of good furniture with us and some fine stock, hogs and cattle.  In packing up to go to Texas there was a widow who assisted me.  In paying her for her services, I gave her some worthless things, because I was so avaricious.  I would not pay her money, but gave her the things I did not want to carry with me.  I remember I left about eight bushels of potatoes in the cellar for her and the night we left they froze.  I felt very much condemned the way I treated this poor woman.

We were as helpless on the plantation as little children.  The cultivation of cotton was very different from anything we had been used to.  A bad neighbor threw all of our plows in the Bernard River and everything seemed to go wrong.  We had eight horses die in the pasture the spring after we moved there.  Soon the money we took with us was gone and Mr. Nation got discouraged.  He went to Brazoria, the county seat, and stayed six weeks during court, for the purpose of entering the practice of law again.

The cotton had been planted before he left.  A neighbor named Martin Hanks came over and told me not to allow the cotton to go to waste, said he would lend me his plows, and advised me to get a colored man named Edmond, who was his master’s overseer in slave time, to manage this crop for me.  I hired five other negroes, paying them with things I had in the house, for I had not a cent of money.  The result was a fine crop of cotton.  Mr. Nation’s daughter Lola, was then eleven years old, and Charlien was three years younger.  We lived six miles from a school, and just at a time when the girls needed school most.  I began to see what a disastrous move we had made.  I became very dispondant and sick at heart.  I was young and did not know then how to contend with disappointments on every hand.  At one time I was quite sick with chills and fever.  I had nothing in the house but meal, some fat bacon and sweet potatoes.  There was a poor old man that we took in for charity who was with us, named Mr. Holt.  I called him to my bedside and asked