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down with long, stringing crene, moving slowly in the close, hot air;
.drawing nearer, she sees under this tree three newly-made graves.
y''
This letter, was received b>r the widow after ^er brother?s Heath, and the rain had not yet fallen on the newly-made ^rave.
Disheartened and lonely, the widow end ?^er children settled ur? the property as best they coiOd, pnd. traveled ov?r land to Tuscu^bia, M abama, where Gaius, the eldest son, was emrloyed unon the government work of digging and blasting at the Muscle Shoals- Tennessee River, at Florence, Alabama.
After a few years Charles returned to Louisiana and. settled in Lafayette Parish.
Frances received a public school education and then t-aught in Tuscumbia uhtil married, to Benia?ine Fybas.	They resided	there	until his death in
1$7$. Frances died in Mont Carrie,	Tennessee, in	1 d0/..
My remembrances of my youth, in the household of my eldest brother, are not always bright pictures. My mother was a sar1, gentle wowan, ^nd the dependent position she was in was humiliating to her sensitive nature. My sis-ter-i n-law was a hard-working woman, and thnuo-1-' my brother had servants in plenty and was accumulating a iarge fortune for those times, leaving there with :i|'200,000,00, we had to help with the washing and such menial service.
But soon there came into my life its first romance, and alas.? its greatest sorrow. For three short months we were' all the world to each other, then a cruelly sudden death removed him	from me. T'r.	Davis	was the	bookkeeper
for my brother, and as it did not interfere *'?ith	the family or	business,
we were very quietly married. ?fr, Davis was returning: from Florence with a heavy belt of gold and silver about his ^aist, ?Then fording the river his horse must have fallen and cane riderles" home. There was no evidence upon the horse or his body to indicate foul nlay* For days his fate remained a mystery, and my brother had the river watched and guarded until his body was recovered.
V/e were living unon the bank of f,he Tennessee R?ver when the great meteoric shower occurred in .If*3?.	'? e v,ere awakened bTr the cries of the Negroes, who
thought the Judgment Day h^d come ^>nd crowded into the house for orotection. Vie went out to th? bank of the riv?r and tness^d, not without awe, the beautiful and sublime disolav, whilst al1 ahout us the frightened Negroes prayed and entreated and howled for mercy. The bir^s were frightened and horses neighed and cattle lowed with fright. The falling stars shot across down and through the quivering air, and the wide river reflected and magnified the splendor of the heavens.
My yougest brother, ?.??illjam, had gone to ioin Ms brother Charles in Louisiana, on finishing his common school; and not lon.^sfter we heard he had been seriously stabbed, lie w?s errploved as a clerk in his brother1 s store, and had. not yet learned the dialect of the Creole. The bo?3 had teased a cross old man who lived with hj3 30n, ^ lad , near them. Several boys were passing the house going to the store, when the bo^s began to scatter and cry out; but Vi3.15.am, not und erstand in**, ke^t on Ms v:ay and received the kni.fe of the infuriated l-'d in the region of ui.s v,e-rt. For so^e time his life was despaired of, but hi* 3 mother* was V;i?.s fc.ith f ul nurse and he recovered,	Sut he felt the old wound	as he grev,r old, and	finallv, ho-',inrr ri.sen
by industry -?nd integrity to b? the iu^0"0 of Verm* I4 on ^rish, full	o^
years and honors, he suffered a short while and died of tho old wound in
1*79.
William, like most of the Kibhes, h~d verir light h<nlr, which saved his life once in the Texas struggle for indenendence. A scouting rarty was Pursued by a larger number of Mexie-ns, and Vi "11 i am ? ^orse g^ve out. As the Mexicans overtook him, one c^Hed. out to u.is n^npp^'ons, ,fI. -*t the old fellow alone; he?ll die soon encugh 2nyhov;n. So they ^a.Honed on after their companions.
Xn 1^36 Gaius, bavin*7- completed hi 5 contract ?'?n^ moved. down to Mobile, embarked in numerous enterprise's, the orinciopl of vh^c-h was a wholesale grocery h use. He w?s then a widower; nn^ not being necessary hut rather an exoense to my brother, 1 went to live with brother Charles at Gaius	was almost bankrupt b*' his	partner si^n^'ng the	firmTs name as	sec^rit17'
for ?	friend ?-'ho failed, -s th^y	Kad to r>a,r v'?avU''r.	^-atherin0, the	remnants
of hifj fortune, end reserv?n^ a fe'-? pa.ithful rTe~roes, ho ''oft Mobile and bought the property at i':? ssi.^ii^i Ci.?f*.,r kn?*'n as tue Barnes Hotel. The ballroom v/as the original residence. The cluster of ].i ve oaks that stand before the hotel wrere then but crocked younc* callings, fin?1 with the aid of old George, brother Gains?s body servant, 1 hound the?* to their stages. Gaius was lonely here without a woman to manage hs household, and soon went back