I owe a great deal to Mis’ Mary for her good training of me, in honesty, uprightness and truthfulness.  She told me that when I went out into the world all white folks would not treat me as she had, but that I must not feel bad about it, but just do what I was employed to do, and if I wasn’t satisfied, to go elsewhere; but always to carry an honest name.

One Sunday when my sweetheart walked to the gate with me, Mis’ Mary met him and told him she thought I was too young for him, and that she was sending me to Sunday school to learn, not to catch a beau.  It was a long while before he could see me again,—­not until later in the season, in watermelon time, when Mis’ Mary and my mother gave me permission to go to a watermelon party one Sunday afternoon.  Mis’ Mary did not know, however, that my sweetheart had planned to escort me.  We met around the corner of the house, and after the party he left me at the same place.  After that I saw him occasionally at barbecues and parties.  I was permitted to go with him some evenings to church, but my mother always walked ahead or behind me and the young man.

We went together for four years.  During that time, although I still called Mis’ Mary’s my home, I had been out to service in one or two families.

Finally, my mother and Mis’ Mary consented to our marriage, and the wedding day was to be in May.  The winter before that May, I went to service in the family of Dr. Drury in Eufaula.  Just a week before I left Clayton I dreamed that my sweetheart died suddenly.  The night before I was to leave, we were invited out to tea.  He told me he had bought a nice piece of poplar wood, with which to make a table for our new home.  When I told him my dream, he said, “Don’t let that trouble you, there is nothing in dreams.”  But one month from that day he died, and his coffin was made from the piece of poplar wood he had bought for the table.

After his death, I remained in Clayton for two or three weeks with my people, and then went back to Eufaula, where I stayed two years.

My sweetheart’s death made a profound impression on me, and I began to pray as best I could.  Often I remained all night on my knees.

Going on an excursion to Macon, Georgia, one time, I liked the place so well that I did not go back to Eufaula.  I got a place as cook in the family of an Episcopal clergyman, and remained with them eight years, leaving when the family moved to New Orleans.

During these eight years, my mother died in Clayton, and I had to take the three smallest children into my care.  My oldest sister was now married, and had a son.

I now went to live with a Mrs. Maria Campbell, a colored woman, who adopted me and gave me her name.  Mrs. Campbell did washing and ironing for her living.  While living with her, I went six months to Lewis’ High School in Macon.  Then I went to Atlanta, and obtained a place as first-class cook with Mr. E. N. Inman.  But I always considered Mrs. Campbell’s my home.  I remained about a year with Mr. Inman, and received as wages ten dollars a month.