the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her
admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for
I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I
could only get a chance to show her what was in me.

After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me, "The
adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it."

It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive
an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs.
Ruffner had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her.

I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth
and I dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every
bench, table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth.
Besides every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and
corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that
in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon
the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I
reported to the head teacher. She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just
where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor
and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the
woodwork, about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she
was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust
on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked: "I guess you will do to
enter this institution."

I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room
was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination
for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine
satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since then, but I
have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed. . . .

Life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me; was constantly taking
me into a new world. The matter of having meals at regular hours, or
eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, the use of the bathtub and of
the toothbrush, as well as the use of sheets upon the bed, were all new
to me. . . .

I sometimes feel that almost the most valuable lesson I got at the
Hampton Institute was in the use and value of the bath.

For some time, while a student at Hampton, I possessed but a single
pair of socks, but when I had worn these till they became soiled, I
would wash them at night and ha