accustomed to hire her own time, and that of the four young children that were left to her, for $250 a year. She earned enough by taking in washing to support the family and pay this tribute to her master. By and by her owner decided to sell them and she was allowed to go out and sell herself, i.e., find some one to whom she would prefer to belong, and who would be willing to pay her master's price for her. She found a purchaser for herself and a part of her children, and another buyer, not far away, for the other child.
But investments in slave property did not prove to be so profitable in those days as they had once been. In little more than a year after she had negotiated the sale of her family, they were all set free by the war, and she was relieved from the necessity of paying wages to some one else for her own work.
After the war closed, the family moved to Chattanooga, and Alexander found work in a rolling mill.
He had saved a little money, and suddenly decided, one day in the fall of 1871, when some of his comrades were about starting for Fisk University, to go along with them. At first he was like a fish out of water, and was sorry enough that he had come. He found it hard to tie his mind down to books, and, as he was not then a Christian, the pervasive religious atmosphere which has always been so characteristic of the school made him uncomfortable. But he had deposited his money with Mr. White on his arrival, and was ashamed to ask for it and give his reason for leaving. When the Christmas vacation came he went home, with no
