The next morning we got into Jacksonville. My idea was to get a place
as chambermaid at Green Cove Springs, Florida, through the influence
of the head waiter at a hotel there, whom I knew. After I got into
Jacksonville I changed my plans. I did not see how I could move my
things any farther, and we went to a hotel for colored people, hired a
room for two dollars, and boarded ourselves on the food which had been
given us in Macon. This food lasted about two weeks. Then I had to
buy, and my money was going every day, and none coming in, I did not
know what to do. One night the idea of keeping a restaurant came to
me, and I decided to get a little home for the three of us, and then
see what I could do in this line of business. After a long and hard
search, I found a little house of two rooms where we could live, and
the next day I found a place to start my restaurant. For house
furnishings, we used at first, to the best advantage we could, the
things we had brought from Macon. Caroline's cookstove had been left
with my foster-mother in Macon. After hiring the room for the
restaurant, I sent for this stove, and it arrived in a few days. Then
I went to a dealer in second-hand furniture and got such things as
were actually needed for the house and the restaurant, on the
condition that he would take them back at a discount when I got
through with them.
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