buy, and my money was going every day, and none coming in, I did not
know what to do. One night the idea of keeping a restaurant came to
me, and I decided to get a little home for the three of us, and then
see what I could do in this line of business. After a long and hard
search, I found a little house of two rooms where we could live, and
the next day I found a place to start my restaurant. For house
furnishings, we used at first, to the best advantage we could, the
things we had brought from Macon. Caroline's cookstove had been left
with my foster-mother in Macon. After hiring the room for the
restaurant, I sent for this stove, and it arrived in a few days. Then
I went to a dealer in second-hand furniture and got such things as
were actually needed for the house and the restaurant, on the
condition that he would take them back at a discount when I got
through with them.

Trade at the restaurant was very good, and we got along nicely. My
sister got a position as nurse for fifteen dollars a month. One day
the cook from a shipwrecked vessel came to my restaurant, and in
return for his board and a bed in the place, agreed to do my cooking.
After trade became good, I changed my residence to a house of four
rooms, and put three cheap cots in each of two of the rooms, and let
the cots at a dollar a week apiece to colored men who worked nearby in
hotels. Lawrence and I did the chamber work at night, after the day's
work in the restaurant.

I introduced "Boston baked beans" into my restaurant, much to the
amusement of the people at first; but after they had once eaten them
it was hard to meet the demand for beans.

Lawrence, who was now about eleven years old, was a great help to me.