Hampton is about five hundred miles. I had not
been away from home many hours before it began to grow painfully evident
that I did not have enough money to pay my fare to Hampton.

By walking, begging rides, both in wagons and in the cars, in some way,
after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about
eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and
dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city before,
and this rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond I was
completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in the place,
and, being unused to city ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at
several places for lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what I
did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets. In
doing this I passed by many food-stands, where fried chicken and half-moon
apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting appearance.
At that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all that I
expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of those
chicken legs or one of those pies. But I could not get either of these,
nor anything else to eat.

I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so
exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired; I was hungry; I was
everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme
physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of a street where the board
sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till I was
sure that no passers-by could see me, and then crept under the sidewalk
and lay for the night upon the ground, with my satchel of clothing for a
pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet above my head. The
next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but I was extremely
hungry, because it had been a long time since I had had sufficient food.
As soon as it became light enough for me to see my surroundings I noticed
that I was near a large ship, and that this ship seemed to be unloading a
cargo of pig iron. I went at once to the vessel and asked the captain to
permit me to help unload the vessel in order to get money for food. The
captain, a white man, who seemed to be kind-hearted, consented. I worked
long enough to earn money for my breakfast, and it seems to me, as I
remember it now, to have been about the best breakfast that I have ever
eaten.

"My work