The hungry guests ate up everything, then stretched themselves out and fell into a drunken sleep. The Shaw children watched them all night through cracks in the attic floor, and when morning came were glad to see the Indians sneak away as if they were ashamed. Many hardships came to the little family. Their cow died, and for an entire winter they had no milk. They had no coffee either, but made something they called coffee out of dried peas and burned rye. Anna was always cold; she cannot remember that the house was ever warm enough to be comfortable; still she enjoyed life and made up her mind to go to college, to be a preacher, and to be worth one hundred thousand dollars. She named this amount because it seemed so unlikely she would ever have any money. Often she would steal away and preach in the woods to an imaginary audience. When she was fifteen years of age she began to teach school. She had but fourteen pupils, and they learned to read from whatever books they could find. The result was that their text books were almanacs and hymn books. For teaching she was paid two dollars a week and board. This latter did not amount to much, as often all she had for her luncheon was a piece of raw salt pork. Her salary was not paid promptly either, as the school authorities had to wait until the dog tax was collected because it was from this fund that the teacher's salary was drawn. The largest salary Anna Shaw ever received for teaching was one hundred and fifty-six dollars a year, so at last she stopped and started to learn the trade of sewing. This was very distasteful to her, and she determined she would not earn her living with the needle. What she wanted to do was to preach. Finally she had a chance to give her first sermon, and her brother-in-law, who owned the county newspaper, printed this notice: "A young girl named Anna Shaw preached at Ashton yesterday. Her real friends deprecate the course she is pursuing." This did not discourage Anna Shaw, for she kept on working and in 1873 managed to enter Albion College in Albion, Michigan. She had earned a little money to pay her way, and she intended to get the rest by preaching. Her family disapproved so strongly of this step that they had nothing to do with her, and it was some years before they became reconciled and good feeling was once more established between them and the bright young woman. Anna was twenty-five when she entered college, and she had had so much experience in her pioneer home she seemed much older. Every Sunday she preached in mission churches to congregations composed chiefly of Indians who sat listening solemnly, while their papooses were hung along the walls in their queer little Indian cradles.