I did not
succeed, and it was night before I got started on my return. When
I had gotten within a mile or so of my home I was so completely
tired out that I could not walk any farther, and I went into an
old, abandoned house to spend the remainder of the night. About
three o'clock in the morning my brother John found me asleep in
this house, and broke to me, as gently as he could, the sad news
that our dear mother had died during the night.
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.
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