In a day or two I said to Mr. _____, "I had better go to Mr. Beck's and let him know my decision, as I promised." This was not met with approval but as he was in some respects --------- he could not object to me filling my promise. He asked if I wished to ride. I told him I would walk to Beck's that evening and back next morning. I was back next morning but not afoot.
I dreaded that trip, but thought I could behave myself nice enough to escape a castigation. I went into the house and told the lady I wanted my clothes. She handed them to me. Mr. _____ was present, but did not speak to me. I saw that he wanted a chance to give us a piece of his mind. That chance he did not get. A few days at the widow Beck's convinced me that my fondest hopes were to be realized. I had found the place I had been looking for ever since my father's death. I was where I could be somebody's boy. Grandma and Aunt Sallie were kind as heart could wish, and F. E. was a gentleman. He was, of course preaching under the commission as recorded in the tenth chapter of Matthew. A man that lived twenty-five miles from there was owing Mr. Beck some money. He happened to be in a neighborhood where Mr. Beck was holding a meeting. He called and offered to pay it, but Mr. Beck refused, saying that when preaching the Savior forbade him taking purse or script. The man had to wait till he could see Mr. Beck when he was not engaged in a meeting to pay that money.
From the time I left Uncle Fleming's till the time I went to Beck's to live I knew but little of kind treatment. I was abused, insomuch that I was inspired with a degree of diffidence I will never overcome. Mr. Beck would speak kindly and endeavored to inspire me with lofty motives, and holy ambition. For the first year they were to clothe me, send me to school three months, and give me twenty dollars.
Mr. Beck bought a fine young mare and told me she was mine to care for and ride so long as I should live with them. Aunt Sallie bought cloth and made me a nice suit of clothes. I could now go to meeting and hold my head up. By mid-summer I was a member of the Baptist church and had no thought but that Becks would be my home through my youth. I was, in this, however, doomed to disappointment. William Beck, a brother to the preacher, but more demon than man, bought an interest in the farm and moved into the house. Not only did the boy have to get out, but also grandma and aunt had to hunt a home elsewhere. He compromised with me by giving me $17.
I had never been to school, but now determined to spend my money in school. I went to Wayne county and attended a subscription school three months. There I learned something of spelling, reading and writing. I then went to Russell county to live with a Mr. Leverage. I stayed there but a few weeks, and then went to Creelsboro, where I stayed nearly a year, working in a saddle shop and clerking in a dry goods store. Creelsboro
