A RAY OF LIGHT.
For three months after my first operation I could not walk. My aunt
would come from Snow Hill once a week to bring my rations and to see how
I was getting along. I always cried when she went home.
During my first month's stay on the doctor's place, "Aunt Lucy" George
with whom I lived, was at home most of the time, but when the cotton
season came on, she had to go to the doctor's field, which was a mile
away, to pick cotton. This left me alone for five days in the week.
"Aunt Lucy" would get up early and prepare her breakfast, take her lunch
to the field with her, and would not return until night. She would also
leave me something to eat, and I could crawl about the house and get
such other things as I needed.
The first few days that I was alone were the most miserable days of my
life. I tried to walk, but fainted once or twice at these attempts, so I
had to be contented with crawling. Soon, however, I began crawling about
the yard. I found several red ants' nests within about twenty or
twenty-five yards of the house, and soon made friends of the ants. I
would crawl from nest to nest and watch them do their work. I became so
interested in them that I would spend the whole day watching and
following them about the yard. I would be anxious for the nights to pass
that I might return to them the next day.
I found that the ants worked by classes. One class would bring out the
dirt, another would go out in search of food, another would take away
the dead, another would over look those that worked, and still another
class, though few in numbers, would come out and look around and then
return. These had much larger heads than the average. Some few, however,
with great heads, would come out once or twice a day. I never learned
what their business was, as they did not seem to do much of anything.
They very seldom went more than a few inches from the nests. I noticed,
too, that those that went in search of food and failed to get it, would
come back to the nests and stand around and consult with the guards and
then would return. They did this several times. Sometimes they would go
away and get into the weeds and rest awhile. However, when they saw
others coming, they would start out again. Sometimes, after making
several trips without success, I would give them crumbs of bread, and
they would hasten away to their nests. They never hesitated when they
had food, but would run right in. This was great fun for me, and I spent
most of the remainder of my time in this manner.
This was during the fall of '84. By the first week in December I had
recovered sufficiently to be able to walk very well with a stick and
could do a little work. I then returned to Snow Hill with my aunt, and,
though I was anxious to return home, I hated very much to leave my
little friends. I got home in time to make toy wagons for my Christmas
money.
The following year, although far from being well, I could do a little
work on my aunt's farm. I ought not to call it a farm, because it was
only a few acres which she rented from one of the tenants on Mr.
Simpson's plantation. The habit of sub-renting was very prevalent on
this plantation. A tenant with one mule would rent twenty-five acres, if
he had two mules he would rent fifty acres. Now in order to get work
done on his farm, he would sub-rent four or five acres, to some one who
would do this work for him. It was in this way that my aunt could get
land to work. We usually made on these few acres about twenty bushels of
corn and sometimes a half a bale or a whole bale of cotton.
Having to work for our plowing and to pay the rent of the land, we had
but little chance to do much work for ourselves. We very seldom had
enough to eat. Some days we would work from the rising of the sun until
dark without anything but water. Then my aunt would go out among the
neighbors in the evening and borrow a little corn meal or get a little
on condition that she would work to pay for it the next day. While my
aunt would go to hunt for the bread I would go out and beg for some milk
from some of our friends. I would always add water to my milk to make it
go a long way. This bread and half-water-and-milk constituted our supper
for many nights.
In spite of these hard times I always found time to study my books.
Sometimes I borrowed books from the boys and girls who had them. We were
too poor to buy oil so I would go to the woods and get a kind of pine
that we called light-wood. This would make an excellent light and I
could study some nights until twelve o'clock. When the blackberries,
peaches, apples and plums were ripe, we fared better, as these grew wild
and we could have a plenty of them to eat. As the season came for the
corn to mature, we would sometimes make a meal of green corn. When the
corn became too hard for us to use in this way, we used to make a grater
out of an old piece of tin and would grate the corn and make meal of it
in this way until it was hard enough to go to the mill.
When the cotton picking season came on we could pick cotton for the
neighbors and in that way could have a plenty to eat. They paid fifty
cents a hundred pounds for picking cotton. I sometimes picked two
hundred pounds a day, but by picking at night, I occasionally got almost
three hundred. We children thought it great fun to go into the swamps at
night to pick cotton. We would go at seven o'clock in the evening and
spend the whole night in the cotton fields. When we got sleepy we would
lie down in the cotton row with our cotton sacks under our heads. We
would sleep a few hours and get up and begin picking again. In the
swamps at night the owls and frogs made plenty of music for us. Such was
my life for several years.
During all these years the one thing uppermost in my mind was the desire
to attend some school, but I could not see how I would ever be able to
do so. I had heard much of Talladega College, the school at Normal and
the state school at Montgomery, but board at these schools was from
seven to eight dollars per month and this had to be paid in cash. This,
of course, would keep me out, as I could never see how I could get so
much money.
It was during the month of August '87 that I first heard of Tuskegee.
There was a revival meeting going on at one of the churches at Snow
Hill. I was determined to visit this meeting. I did not have suitable
clothes, neither did I have any shoes, so my people told me that I would
not be able to attend church.
I had not been to church in seven years, and I was very anxious to hear
some preaching. Notices were sent out that on a Wednesday night a
Presiding Elder would speak. This man had the reputation of being a
great preacher. All of our people prepared early, and went to church.
When I thought the services had begun, I too went. Though I was far from
being well, I did not have much trouble in reaching there. I did not go
in, however, but went around to the rear of the church. The building was
a large, box-like cottage, and contained many cracks. One could hear as
well on the outside as on the inside. I stood directly behind the pulpit
and heard all that the preacher said.
At the close of his sermon he spoke of the school at Tuskegee, where, he
said, poor boys and girls could go without money and without price, and
work for an education. From that night I decided to go to Tuskegee.
Before the meeting closed, I returned home, and when the others got
there, I was in my place fast asleep. I wrote Mr. Washington the next
day, and he sent me a catalogue immediately.