The heavy task was too much for me, and my health began to give way. It may seem strange that I should place so much emphasis upon words thoughtlessly, idly spoken but then we do many strange things in life, and cannot always explain the motives that actuate us. While I was working so hard that others might live in comparative comfort, and move in those circles of society to which their birth gave them entrance, the thought often occurred to me whether I was really worth my salt or not and then perhaps the lips curled with a bitter sneer. With my needle I kept bread in the mouths of seventeen persons for two years and five months. Louis were my patrons, and when my reputation was once established I never lacked for orders. I was fortunate in obtaining work, and in a short time I had acquired something of a reputation as a seamstress and dress-maker. Garland so, and he gave me permission to see what I could do. My mother, my poor aged mother, go among strangers to toil for a living! No, a thousand times no! I would rather work my fingers to the bone, bend over my sewing till the film of blindness gathered in my eyes nay, even beg from street to street. And now they proposed to destroy each tendril of affection, to cloud the sunshine of her existence when the day was drawing to a close, when the shadows of solemn night were rapidly approaching. They had been the central figures in herdream of life-a dream beautiful to her, since she had basked in the sunshine of no other. She had been raised in the family, had watched the growth of each child from infancy to maturity they had been the objects of her kindest care, and she was wound round about them as the vine winds itself about the rugged oak. Every gray hair in her old head was dear to me, and I could not bear the thought of her going to work for strangers. The necessities of the family were so great, that it was proposed to place my mother out at service. When his family, myself included, joined him in his new home on the banks of the Mississippi, we found him so poor that he was unable to pay the dues on a letter advertised as in the post-office for him. Louis, hoping to improve his fortune in the West but ill luck followed him there, and he seemed to be unable to escape from the influence of the evil star of his destiny. His life was not a prosperous one, and after struggling with the world for several years he left his native State, a disappointed man. Garland, who had married Miss Ann Burwell, one of my old master's daughters. My troubles in North Carolina were brought to an end by my unexpected return to Virginia, where I lived with Mr. HE years passed and brought many changes to me, but on these I will not dwell, as I wish to hasten to the most interesting part of my story.
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