Mrs. Hannah Piedmont, the colored woman whom we have presented to our readers as addressing her little boy, was the mother of five children,—­three girls and two boys.  In the order of their ages, the names of her children were:  James Henry, aged fifteen, Amanda Ann, aged thirteen, Eliza Jane, aged eleven, Belton, aged eight, and Celestine, aged five.  Several years previous to the opening of our history, Mr. Piedmont had abandoned his wife and left her to rear the children alone.

School opened in October, and as fast as she could get books and clothing Mrs. Piedmont sent her children to school.  James Henry, Amanda Ann, and Eliza Jane were sent at about a week’s interval.  Belton and Celestine were then left—­Celestine being regarded as too young to go.  This morning we find Belton’s mother preparing him for school, and we shall stand by and watch the preparations.

The house was low and squatty and was built of rock.  It consisted of one room only, and over this there was a loft, the hole to climb into which was in plain view of any one in the room.  There was only one window to the house and that one was only four feet square.  Two panes of this were broken out and the holes were stuffed with rags.  In one corner of the room there stood a bed in which Mrs. Piedmont and Amanda Ann slept.  Under this was a trundle bed in which Eliza Jane and Celestine slept at the head, while Belton slept at the foot.  James Henry climbed into the loft and slept there on a pallet of straw.  The cooking was done in a fireplace which was on the side of the house opposite the window.  Three chairs, two of which had no backs to them, completed the articles in the room.

In one of these chairs Mrs. Piedmont was sitting, while Belton stood before her all dressed and ready to go to school, excepting that his face was not washed.

It might be interesting to note his costume.  The white lady for whom Mrs. Piedmont washed each week had given her two much-torn pairs of trousers, discarded by her young son.  One pair was of linen and the other of navy blue.  A leg from each pair was missing; so Mrs. Piedmont simply transferred the good leg of the linen pair to the suit of the navy blue, and dressed the happy Belton in that suit thus amended.  His coat was literally a conglomeration of patches of varying sizes and colors.  If you attempted to describe the coat by calling it by the name of the color that you thought predominated, at least a half dozen aspirants could present equal claims to the honor.  One of Belton’s feet was encased in a wornout slipper from the dainty foot of some young woman, while the other wore a turned over boot left in town by some farmer lad who had gotten himself a new pair.  His hat was in good condition, being the summer straw last worn by a little white playfellow (when fall came on, this little fellow kindly willed his hat to Belton, who, in return for this favor, was to black the boy’s shoes each morning during the winter).