in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire out-of-doors.  One night I recall that we camped near an abandoned log cabin, and my mother decided to build a fire in that for cooking, and afterward to make a “pallet” on the floor for our sleeping.  Just as the fire had gotten well started a large black snake fully a yard and a half long dropped down the chimney and ran out on the floor.  Of course we at once abandoned that cabin.  Finally we reached our destination—­a little town called Malden, which is about five miles from Charleston, the present capital of the state.

At that time salt-mining was the great industry in that part of West Virginia, and the little town of Malden was right in the midst of the salt-furnaces.  My stepfather had already secured a job at a salt-furnace, and he had also secured a little cabin for us to live in.  Our new house was no better than the one we had left on the old plantation in Virginia.  In fact, in one respect it was worse.  Notwithstanding the poor condition of our plantation cabin, we were at all times sure of pure air.  Our new home was in the midst of a cluster of cabins crowded closely together, and as there were no sanitary regulations, the filth about the cabins was often intolerable.  Some of our neighbours were coloured people, and some were the poorest and most ignorant and degraded white people.  It was a motley mixture.  Drinking, gambling, quarrels, fights, and shockingly immoral practices were frequent.  All who lived in the little town were in one way or another connected with the salt business.  Though I was a mere child, my stepfather put me and my brother at work in one of the furnaces.  Often I began work as early as four o’clock in the morning.

The first thing I ever learned in the way of book knowledge was while working in this salt-furnace.  Each salt-packer had his barrels marked with a certain number.  The number allotted to my stepfather was “18.”  At the close of the day’s work the boss of the packers would come around and put “18” on each of our barrels, and I soon learned to recognize that figure wherever I saw it, and after a while got to the point where I could make that figure, though I knew nothing about any other figures or letters.

From the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything, I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read.  I determined, when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life, I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers.  Soon after we got settled in some manner in our new cabin in West Virginia, I induced my mother to get hold of a book for me.  How or where she got it I do not know, but in some way she procured an old copy of Webster’s “blue-back” spelling-book, which contained the alphabet, followed by such meaningless words as “ab,” “ba,” “ca,” “da.”  I began at once to devour this book, and I think that it was the first one I ever