The solution of the problem was now easy. Not knowing I must change trains at Charleston Junction, I had been carried forty-seven miles out of my way down a branch road.
Twenty-four empty box-cars had been side-tracked to be loaded with cabbage, and I had been in one of the cars.
After an hour's walk I arrived at Meggetts. It was near 11 p. m., though all the stores, five, I think, were open.
Appeasing my hunger at a small restaurant in the place, I had just $1.05 of the original $4.00 I had left home with.
Upon inquiry, I found that a freight would leave Meggetts at 2 a. m. that night bound for the North.
The train was loaded with early vegetables, and I was told would make a short stay at the Junction.
Eighteen colored men, whose homes were in Charleston, boarded the train that night when I did. The men had been sent down from Charleston to help load the train.
The brakemen, whose instructions were to let the men ride free kept to themselves on the train, and without stop we ran back to the Junction. The men clambered down and were soon walking the remaining few miles to their homes.
There are several tracks at Charleston Junction, but before departing the men showed me the track leading to Savannah.