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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