to have an ever sympathetic heart, ready to bestow a blessing wherever it was possible for her to do so. In her classes she was always obedient, meek, kind and gentle. While thus a student in the Richmond Institute she and Rev. J. H. Presley, who was also a student, became fond friends, and this friendship grew into blooming love for each other. Rev. Presley was preparing to go to Africa as a missionary. Hattie began also to prepare to go with him, they having so agreed. In June, 1883, they were united in the bonds of matrimony, and sailed for Africa on December 1st of same year, accompanied by Rev. W. W. Colley and wife, Revs. McKinney and J. J. Cole. The gathering at the First Baptist Church on a Sunday evening in November, 1883, was a memorable occasion, for it was here that hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian people met to bid "farewell" to the missionaries; and, in the case of this dear woman, it was a "farewell" until these Christians shall meet her in heaven. When they had been in Africa only a short while Rev. Presley, her husband, was taken quite ill, and remained so for some considerable time.
She was ever faithful to him in this great trial, and even when all was as dark as night, when all hopes for his recovery were fast fleeing, she still was true, and when high temperature and the infected poison of fever deprived him of consciousness, and hopes yet fleeing, she was also true to him, and, like a clock, she was ever on the watch for a chance, an opportunity, to supply some necessity. During this severe trial of her faith and strength the little infant that had been born to them was laid in the
