pelled to work for "daily bread," and "Annie," being the next dependence for a nurse, could not enter school as early ps most children do, and now entering at ten years, she could not expect to remain very long. Sure enough, when she had been to school only six short years, mother's health failed and the faithful child bade her school adieu to become the only sick-nurse to an afflicted mother.
However, by faithful study, she had finished the grammar grade. Although the mother's health was, after a long illness, partially restored, yet Lucy Ann could not return to school; being the oldest of several children, she was bound, by a sense of duty, to remain at home and lighten the burdens that fell heavily upon a disabled parent. She was never idle, though sometimes in poor health herself On becoming a Christian she united with the Ebenezer Baptist Church, of Richmond, and ever afterwards lived a devoted, faithful, Christian life.
There is one memorable fact that we here note: From the very hour she was converted she declared that Africa was the field of labor to which her attention, in some mysterious way, had been turned. At various times she would ask her mother if she (mother) thought Africa would ever be reached by this anxious seeker for truth. Her mother, scarcely believing that she (daughter) ever could get to that far-away land, would carelessly reply, "The Lord, will open the way." However dark and discouraging the way then seemed to Lucy Ann, she still cherished a fond hope in her breast that the Lord would open the way. In all this she had not failed in
