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readily hire Bob for v50 or *}75 oer rrnnth, and the old people would nay me hire, so I.->was very comfortably well off but lonely. Tn the neighborhood a Dr. Standard settled for practice and h|s ^ife died	left four gir.ls,
aged from 10 to 4. The doctor Mas a Pleasant and fluent talker and a handsome man; so trith his wirnln0* ways and sympathy for the mother! ess '"iris, two of which were little pore than babies, 7 wa*-.- soon convinced that I could be happy as his second wife than to continue the 1ohdy li fe T was living, we were married on June 5th,
I scon found that J had my hands ful1 in tr^in^'nr these children, but feel that they realized in after life vhat J tri^d to make of the,ri, for they h.vd ..been cadly neglected. Jaynes was .just the age of Cdell?, the second one, ard they ^frew up fondly attached to each other, which lasted until her untimely death? brought on by sorrows which she could v^t b^r	consequently	trie^
to drown in morphia. Door ''vi^li^ !
. Sarah was of a masterful disposition ^nd always dominated her sisters, and. her influence directed the l.ivec' of others. Trell, that is a closed bool: now. Rosa and our ret, the prettiest and most winninr of the sisters, have rested for years in their graves, so we will let their faults he forgotten and remember only the rood.
The doctor1 s first wife was a V\ss "sliza Jane Veils, of Hinds bounty, Miss., and he had three brothers who had married into the some family, T let the girls visit their mother?s relations, hut 7. did not care to live amohg them, as they were inclined to interfere between us. The doctor?s health would not permit his too-strict devotion to practice; and when James? grandfather gave up farming we could not find employment for hi*? servants, so in the doctor bought a good cotton farm. in Pike County, a healthy h|U_ country where the Negro children could increase rapidly and the men and boys suppoit us, instead of being an expense as they were ,in r,i ssissipnl City. The farm cost some ?6,000, and in three or four years was pai.d for. ve kept a governess for the children until S^r^h war married to Kr. Dhelps in T,Tew Or-, leans and James was sent to college. Odella then was as sweet and bright a :^girl as one could wish, and now that/ the younger ones were sent to Summit to the academy, she was my closest comnani.on, and soon attracted the young men from	all the country around}	one	of whom, Ca^t^in Hatch	T?unphy, a young
Kentucky	gallant, was her choden	smr're. '? e wprp makin~ up	hPr trusseau
when the war broke out, and her father advised her to stay as she then, rather than be left a wi.do?*r, ?S she would hqVo b^en soon, since he contracted consumption the first winter in Virginia and died in April, ?6?.
In 1?53 the Yellow Fever broke out in Prandon, Miss., where two of the doctor1 s brothers kept store. Henry Vincent "t^nd^rd and Ms wife died within a week, as well as two of their children and tve doctor?s half-brother, Charles H. Edwards. The orphans were div'lded between her sisters, but as the estate was wound up it only lert "?1200 =?nd four Negroes -- two men and two women -- to support the children, two boys and two girls. ks the d oc-tor had been chosen guardian he thought it his duty to bring them ?to his mome and	raise them as his own.	The	younrest, a boy of six	months, was kert
by his mother?s sister, who had	but	one child and ?was well	off. My own
?little girl needed companions, so Tobe and Laun? wer? soon like my own children. George was an unfortunate: his feet had been v?rv badly burned when he was small and he had an i^ediment in his speech and V:as not very bright -- besides a bad temper.
I think I may mark the vea.r 1^60 as the height of my h^nnireas and prosperity. James, my first care always, had ouit college and was t^kihg his sec-ond year?s term at the M.D. in ^pw Orleans. He had gone through all kinds '-.of experiences at school and In the cities, and now had settled down to study. His property was well-placed, we thought, and the farm paid for, the Negroes well and prosperous -- so in a year or two he would have a fair fortune to begin his career with. The doctor?s rirls were doing very well at school and we looked forward with pleasunfe anticipation to having a gay and happy household of young people. Noth^ing delighted the- doctor more than to witness the admiration they caused when, on rare occasions, he took them to a ball or barbecue, or even to the tent on the camp grounds where we kept open house during the meeting.
The doctor took a very active part in the politics of the momentous fall of l?60. It goes without saying, he was a secessionist when the time ca?e. I was more conservative and doubted the success of a resort to arms, =>swas inevitable. But when fairly launched into the strife I did all I could for the comfort of the boys. My own-went with the first con^anir formed in Pike County, the Summit Rifles (Cant, Murphy) and were part of the 1.6th Mississippi,