This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life.  For several years my mother had not been in good health, but I had no idea, when I parted from her the previous day, that I should never see her alive again.  Besides that, I had always had an intense desire to be with her when she did pass away.  One of the chief ambitions which spurred me on at Hampton was that I might be able to get to be in a position in which I could better make my mother comfortable and happy.  She had so often expressed the wish that she might be permitted to live to see her children educated and started out in the world.

In a very short time after the death of my mother our little home was in confusion.  My sister Amanda, although she tried to do the best she could, was too young to know anything about keeping house, and my stepfather was not able to hire a housekeeper.  Sometimes we had food cooked for us, and sometimes we did not.  I remember that more than once a can of tomatoes and some crackers constituted a meal.  Our clothing went uncared for, and everything about our home was soon in a tumble-down condition.  It seems to me that this was the most dismal period of my life.

My good friend, Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always made me welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this trying period.  Before the end of the vacation she gave me some work, and this, together with work in a coal-mine at some distance from my home, enabled me to earn a little money.

At one time it looked as if I would have to give up the idea of returning to Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that I determined not to give up going back without a struggle.  I was very anxious to secure some clothes for the winter, but in this I was disappointed, except for a few garments which my brother John secured for me.  Notwithstanding my need of money and clothing, I was very happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to pay my travelling expenses back to Hampton.  Once there, I knew that I could make myself so useful as a janitor that I could in some way get through the school year.

Three weeks before the time for the opening of the term at Hampton, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my good friend Miss Mary F. Mackie, the lady principal, asking me to return to Hampton two weeks before the opening of the school, in order that I might assist her in cleaning the buildings and getting things in order for the new school year.  This was just the opportunity I wanted.  It gave me a chance to secure a credit in the treasurer’s office.  I started for Hampton at once.

During these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall never forget.  Miss Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and most cultured families of the North, and yet for two weeks she worked by my side cleaning windows, dusting rooms, putting beds in order, and what not.  She felt that things would not be in condition for the opening of school unless every window-pane was perfectly clean, and she took the greatest satisfaction in helping to clean them herself.  The work which I have described she did every year that I was at Hampton.