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to Mobile to see the kind idow,	???ho h?cl boarded h?m in his time of
trial. Some laughed at the old couple, bot> rray and h*nt with a*'e, but they lived very contentedly together for I'^ny,	years;	and	'-'hen	Heath
finally conouered the old mar, his dear ol^	fe Hofi only ^receded birr by
two years. (1^73)
After cell in*3: the nlace at Vi 3si3sir>ni City, Captain ^ibbe (as he was generally called) bourht a lovely she,;,n farm air ^iles back in the rnn? woods, which with his u.su.nl energy 1 o soon- ^ev^lo^^fi into the best fruit f-rm in the section. His delicious ^ea^he-' and ^arlv str?wbe rr i e3 co^'vande^ the hi ripest priced in the rarket^ in Yev: Orleans, and o^ietly ^ere the old foltts lived v.rith their Negroes. The ?ne fam->lv +u=i. old cook, Lucy, T*ras brought ud in the house ?s cook an^ house^aid. rvrn'-1 ho ^ l qrTQ fam-i.lv, ?nd the old missus was a mother to the?T? .al.?o. Yet. in their old a"? and almost h^i-n-lessness, not one of tl,ese ca-^e to ?*rait upon them. They ^are rob?^e^ one night during the war and vere crofted almost to A eath. As soon as it was known, Mrs. L. L. Davis, 1:ho VioH oi'-'^ys been a devoted friend, cnv71 to nurse them, and then Prevailed u^on them to sell tho ^lace and move to mv sipner home in I'ississinni City, vhp.re they 1 ived until f 6*, when the house was burned and they lost everythin^ but. o smb'll su^ cash. Charles Dudley, sister Lucy?s son ^horp they h d t.a^en to raise wben they w-:re in Alabama, came down from Fontgoroery and took the old people home with h^m. Aunt Margaret, as you children remember, did not wish to leave the coast. She never recovered from, the f'ri,'pht. and shock end chokinr or the robber, and felt as if she had but a short while to atay. She did not live Ion** in Montgomery. The old man ke^t his strength re^^r^ablv ^n^ attended a oicnic a few days before his death, a^ed
Sister Lucy, who had married a rain a^ter f,-athgn ^udlev?.^ death in 1^20, was again a wido?-r in 1^ 50; and vi.th one d^urrVt?r, T'arv Buckner, lived a fe?' years v/ith Oaius and died, and is buried on the hill above the public road in sir.ht of the h^use. I do not kne^ if ^er crave 5 s marked. Mary Buckner married and lived in rTew York.
While living v.'ith brother Charles at Holmesville, I married James1 father, Slija. C.. Ferguson. ? e lia'ad at th? .junction o^ Coaodra and ^oueff, and my brothers, Charles an^1 il. la am, not	far sn-'av. T?other lived	with Charles,
and werwere for a while prosperous	'^nd l,arnvt
On August 30th, 1^0, was born our only child, James r'ilton Ferguson, nemed for a. favorite and only only brother1 of Ferguson. T-hen J^mes was but a few days old my mother had to lea-t^	3^0 felt 30 ill she was afraid
she would be an anxiety in nur houeehole at that t'mo. I never saw her a-gain, as she died at 'Brother Charges? house before I -, abl e to leave mv room. Mr. Ferruson now be^an to be ai,rare of heart trouble, and w=> lived a very ouiet life. !5ach fall as the crops wer l?id aside and v,?er v-rere waiting for the maturing, the ne^.rhbor- vrou.l.d co u^ to the hills with cam^inc outfit, and hunt and fish. Their wives and children also eninved the outinc. In his health r.rr,winr '-orse, v^e w^nt to Biloxi, to try the water cure of Dr. Baren.heit, ?nd bought, a ^lac.e ne^r	in	T'issi ssirmi City. : It ad-
joined the lar.oon and was too low, ?nd the house w*s old, so v^e beran to build out in front a lar.ee, roomy house; but before	it was	finished,	he had
no need of an earthly tabernacle.	He suffered such	sudden	attacks I	never
felt a moment?s relief from anxiety when he was away; and he had to make frecuent tri.rs to We-' Orleans and to ?ais farm at home. There were no steamboats making regular trins aero s.? the lake then, nor railroads anyplace, so all the carry?lip: was done by schooner, anr1 th? mails wpr^ slov?. In June of 1^46 he went to the ci tv to buy blinds ^nd sash for the house and did not return when exnected; but instead a letter fro? his faithful friend, Pat Defriaze, telling me he was th himto the last and was wait in*?, to take him back to the old home.
Nov: be fan years of loneliness and trial. The ol.d o-randnarent s of my son wanted me to come back to Bn you C^ico, but bbsv humored and s.poiled the boy, and I preferred to brir.r hiv-? u.o according ?f'-o his father?s rlans. T)ie ^erroes I let the old folks keen, except t\os?	t-hat ^rere	vrilled	to	me and the household servants. The nlace vras sold and	the money	loaned	to	his sister?s hus-
band, Dr. Scott, v-'hich nroved a food investment. Though we could never ^.et the interest, the principal v^as nai.d ib cotton ^h? ,f?li of ?6,:i and v/asall that my son had left of hjg father?s nro^erty pfter the war had set free the Negroes and all other debts were naid.
My cook, Frances, and TTr. Ferguson?s man, Souire, h^d a lar^e family. The ?girls, Minerva and Charlotte, could do	the ?-'ouse	work now.	T'r. Ferguson had
bought a fine young ^egro, Bob Bill, vihom he had	taught	to	read and cinher,
?and taught the cappenter?s tr ide. After th* house v>roS finished, I could