There was no work on account of the strike.

I spent nearly the whole of the first month of my vacation in an effort to find something to do by which I could earn money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little money to use after reaching there.
Toward the end of the first month, I went to a place a considerable distance from my home, to try to find employment.

I did not succeed, and it was night before I got started on my return.

When I had gotten within a mile or so of my home I was so completely tired out that I could not walk any farther, and I went into an old, abandoned house to spend the remainder of the night.

About three o'clock in the morning my brother John found me asleep in this house, and broke to me, as gently as he could, the sad news that our dear mother had died during the night.
This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life.