asunder, where we did not see one another any more until after the war
of 1865. And we all thought that mother was dead, for we did not hear
any tidings of her after she had reached the far South.

I shall never forget that lovely Sunday morning when I saw my dear
mother returning again to her own native home and her own dear ones once
more, but mother would not go to the house with us, as she did not want
to take the law in her own hands. So she told sister and I where she was
stopping and told us to come to her after we had told the gentleman
where we lived, and I went to him and told him that mother had come back
and wanted to have us to come where she was staying. He, Mr. House, did
not want us to go, and I took my oldest sister and marched out to go
where mother was and he did not like that freedom, and he tried to find
which way that we had gone to the place, but he did not find us, and we
had been to the place where the people were that had homes, and that
they would kill us at first sight, and that was all that I wanted to
see, and I did not find one thing true of their sayings.

Mother now has to tell the gentleman where to find all of her own dear
ones whom God in His love for had kept for her, and she should have
been very grateful to Him that her life had been prolonged and all that
she had left alive were still alive, awaiting for her to return, and
finding that her children were all over in different places, and now she
has to tell where to find them, through the help of the Lord. And when
she had gone for them and was told that some of her own were dead, she
said that she would go and dig up their bones; but they were not dead,
as was said, and she sent the soldiers after them and sometimes they
were told the same as mother was, and some of the little ones had to be
sent for two or three times before they were brought. My oldest sister
knew where they all were, so she could help to get the rest.