After the surrender the Tarkars wished to go back to their own country but had no money. They concluded to save. They worked in the mills for a dollar a day, but could not save without help, so they said to their wives, “Now we want to go home and it takes a lot of money. You must help us save. You see fine clothes--you must not crave them.” The wives promised and replied: “_You_ see fine clothes and new hats--now don’t you crave them either. We will work together.” They made six dollars a week. Of this they could save two dollars, sometimes three, but they had rent to pay and found they could not get ahead that way, for it would take a lot of money to get home. Among themselves they talked over the injustice of their position--how Meaher had brought them from their native land and how they now had neither home nor country. Kazoola, who seems to have always been a spokesman, concluded he would present their case to Meaher. Soon after he was cutting timber (just back of where the schoolhouse now stands), Captain Tim Meaher came along and sat upon a felled tree. Kazoola recognized this to be his opportunity, stopped work, and stood looking at Meaher, all his emotion speaking through his expressive face. The captain looked up from the stick he was whittling and struck by the sorrow in the man’s face asked: “Kazoola, what makes you so sad?” “I grieve for my home.” “But you’ve got a good home.” “Captain Tim, how big is Mobile?” “I don’t know, I’ve never been to the four corners.” “If you give Kazoola all Mobile, that railroad, and the banks of Mobile Kazoola does not want them for this is not home.” When the old man tells this his face reflects overwhelming grief--in his eyes there is the far-away vision of home, and in a low voice he moans, “Oh Lor’! Oh Lor’!” Then he regains himself and goes on with his narrative. “Captain Tim, you brought us from our country where we had land and home. You made us slaves. Now we are free, without country, land, or home. Why don’t you give us a piece of this land and let us build for ourselves an African Town?” Kazoola relates Meaher’s reply very dramatically. “Thou fool! Thinkest thou I will give you property upon property? You do not belong to me now!” The Tarkars concluded to buy. When one reached this conclusion, the others said: “If you are going to buy, we will too.” They bought property from Meaher, who made them no concessions. They worked and saved, going half clad and living upon half rations. Though accustomed in their own country to Nature’s luxuries, they now lived on molasses and corn-bread or mush (boiled corn-meal). The men worked in the mills and their wives helped by planting gardens and fruit trees and becoming venders of fruit and vegetables. Their Tarkar home began to be a chimera; day after day new ties pushed it farther away. [Illustration: Drawn by Emma Roche. Olouala.]