y aunt,
her daughter, her grandson and myself. Each of us had a little farm.
About mid-summer when our provisions had given out, my aunt's daughter
and her son mortgaged their crops for something to eat, and wanted that
we should do the same, but I would not agree to do so. This, of course,
made it hard for me to get anything to eat. My cousin and her son were
perfectly willing that their mother and grandmother should share in
their provisions, but would see to it that I got none. I did not think
hard of them for this, because I felt that I had no right to what they
had. I continued to live on water and bread, and sometimes I would get a
little milk from the neighbors as I had formerly done. I asked them,
however, if I might have the water in which they boiled their vegetables
whenever they had a boiled dinner. We called this water "pot liquor." Of
course, they readily consented to this and sometimes I would get enough
of this liquor to last me two or three days. In fact, I was poorly
nourished all the time.

About this time someone came through the county selling clocks, on
condition that we pay for them later in the fall. I objected to this but
the other members of the family over-ruled my objections and the clock
was bought on the condition stated above. The clock cost $12 and each of
us agreed to pay $3.00 each. When the time came to pay for this clock no
one had any money, and so I paid what I had saved to prepare myself for
Tuskegee. I thought now that I would never get to that school as I had
spent most of my money in paying for a worthless clock. However, I
picked cotton day and night for almost two weeks, and succeeded in
making all the money back which I had spent for the clock. I was now
able to finish paying Dr. Keyser and get a few clothes and start for
Tuskegee. For a long time the people in the quarter did not believe that
I was going, and many tried to discourage me. Had it not been for my
aunt's encouraging words and sincere efforts, I believe that I could not
have overcome the efforts of others to keep me from going. When,
however, they all found that I was determined to go, they all became my
friends and each would give me a nickel or a dime to help me off.

The night before I left for Tuskegee, one of the neighbors told me that
while he did not have anything to give me, he had a contract to get a
cord of wood to the woodyard for the train by six o'clock the next
morning and if I would take his team