I found work in a kindly family, where, in return for taking care of an old lady, I received room and board and two dollars a week. Four hours of my day were left for school.
The following February brought me an appointment as teacher in a district school, at eighteen dollars a month and “turnabout” boarding in farmers' families.
The next two years were spent teaching and attending school in Madison. When I was twenty, a gift from father added to my savings and made possible the realization of one of my dreams. I went East for a special summer course.
No tubes shuttled under the Hudson in those days. From the ferry-boat I was suddenly dazzled with the vision of a towering gold dome rising above the four and five-story structures. The New York World building was then the tallest in the world. To me it was also the most stupendous.
Impulsively I turned to a man leaning on the ferry-boat railing beside me. “Is n't that the most wonderful thing in the world?” I gasped.
“Not quite,” he answered, and looked at me. His look made me uncomfortable. I could have spoken to any stranger in Madison without embarrassment. It took me about twenty years to understand why a plain, middle-aged woman may chat with a strange man anywhere on earth, while the same conversation cheapens a good-looking young girl.
That summer I met my future husband. He was doing research work at Columbia, and we ran across each other constantly in the library. I fairly lived there, for I found myself, for the first time, among a wealth of books, and I read everything--autobiographies, histories, and novels good and bad.
Tom's family and most of his friends were out of town for July and August. I had never met any one like him, and he had never dreamed of any one like me. We were friends in a week and sweethearts in a month.
Instead of joining his family, Tom stayed in New York and showed me the town. He took me to my first plays. Even now I know that “If I Were King” and “The Idol's Eye”, with Frank Daniels, were good.
One day we went driving in an open carriage--his. It was upholstered in soft fawn color, the coachman wore fawn-colored livery, and the horses were beautiful. I was very happy. When we reached my boarding house again, I jumped out. I was used to hopping from spring wagons.