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grades. Mary ordered him out of the room to go help his father get the wood cut but as I looked out of the window, I could see him going to the playground with a ball under his arm. Mary saw him at the same time and declared, "That is the most trifling boy I have ever seen. I'll get him yet for this. I don't know what's goin' to become of him."
Like many of her race and sex it is plain that she seems not to put any dependence in any boy or man. It was further shown when she made a remark about Dock. "My ol' man is not brutal — jus' shiftless, but I guess it is because of his health."
Mary spoke of the possibilities of the future. "Now, if I can keep my girls at home for seven years longer, we can pay off the mortgage; but one of them has a suitor - a teacher at Freemanville who has been paying her court. If the other two has ever had a beau, I don't know it. I reckon though it would be better for them to marry before one of them should disgrace herself. But if I even so much as mention such things to them, it makes them mad. They always claim that they are old enough to take care of themselves. But I don't know and nobody else knows what a girl might do. After all my raising them right; I always made them go to the Methodist Church with me and tried to bring them up in the straight and narrow way; but I didn't spare the rod either. But if some wolf in sheep's clothing should ruin one of my daughters by big promises and honeyed words, I wouldn't leave it up to the Lord. No ma'am, not me."
Mary said of her husband, "We were speaking about Dock's eyes. He was a terrible care, a man ailing and me with a living to make, but one cold day I was sitting in my room — brooding, praying and wondering what we were going to do. We had no wood and nothing else much. When I heard
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a knock I went and opened the door. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Mr. Harry Patterson, a man Dock had worked for fourteen years, stood in the door. The spirit rose but I said to myself, 'Down spirit, wait 'til Marse Patterson goes home. Then you can do all the shouting you want.' He had heard of our plight and had come to see about taking the old man to a hospital for an operation. I have never been so happy since I was in Snow Hill in the seminary."
Dock Hines was carried to the hospital and the cataract was removed, so that he can now see some out of that eye but a cataract has covered the other one.
The girls came in from school and greeted us courteously. They were dressed alike in plaid skirts and red topper coats. Their mother's training showed in their pleasant manners and self-possession. Myrtice had a headache; so she lay down on the bed. Blona went to make a fire in the stove and fix supper. She remarked that they never had but two meals a day. That was breakfast and supper when they got home from school. Myrtice, regardless of her headache, was in a talkative mood. She began to tell about incidents that had happened that day at school, and soon was telling all about their school life.
"All the time that we were working in the field, Blona and I were planning to go to school. We didn't see how we could for we had no money, but we didn't give up hope. After we finished high school, we wrote to the Alabama State Teachers' College in Montgomery, the school for colored. The principal got a place for us to work in Cloverdale with some of the rich white people and go to school. We borrowed some money from Mr. Jones, a banker, and promised to pay him in the summer by working on his farm. This we did. He was glad to help us. It didn't take much, just train fare and a
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few clothes. We worked hard at the white folks' house and went to school during the day. We stayed all that first winter.
"The next year we couldn't be spared at home. Mama couldn't take the load by herself. Dorothy and John Wesley were still in high school at home. The next year Blona went back for four months, and the summer following she went for three months. That winter we both stayed in school. Dorothy was large enough to work and help at home and Papa was assigned to teach an adult school.
"Blona was able to teach the next winter but papa lost his job after she began teaching. We have both been teaching for three years now and Dorothy, with the help of Federal aid, spent three years in Huntsville school. She is now teaching in Columbia, Alabama. We miss her very much but we are making a living. When school closes, we work in the field."
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The Hines, Negro Teachers — Ala,
Very Good
Mother slave-born - freed, became tenant — she decided on teaching — taught 3 yrs. — had hopeless love affair — married in a sense on rebound — no love, but respect — "after I bore him nine children, I couldn't give him up." — he was teacher also — wages low he went saw-milling, 14 yrs. — 4 children died — girls now teachers — boy finishing high school — girls work in field in summer — family buying house
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