; Josie would roundly berate
the boys for carelessness; and all know that it was a hard thing to dig
a living out of a rocky side-hill.

I secured the school. I remember the day I rode horseback out to the
commissioner's house with a pleasant young white fellow who wanted the
white school. The road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed
and the water jingled, and we rode on. "Come in," said the
commissioner,--"come in. Have a seat. Yes, that certificate will do.
Stay to dinner. What do you want a month?" "Oh," thought I, "this is
lucky"; but even then fell the first awful shadow of the Veil, for they
ate first, then I--alone.

The schoolhouse was a log hut, where Colonel Wheeler used to shelter his
corn. It sat in a lot behind a rail fence and thorn bushes, near the
sweetest of springs. There was an entrance where a door once was, and
within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs
served as windows. Furniture was scarce. A pale blackboard crouched in
the corner. My desk was made of three boards, reinforced at critical
points, and my chair, borrowed from the landlady, had to be returned
every night. Seats for the children--these puzzled me much. I was
haunted by a New England vision of neat little desks and chairs, but,
alas! the reality was rough plank benches without backs, and
at times without legs. They had the one virtue of making naps
dangerous,--possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted.

It was a hot morning late in July when the school opened. I trembled
when I heard the patter of little feet down the dusty road, and saw the
growing row of dark solemn faces and bright eager eyes facing me. First
came Josie and her brothers and sisters. The longing to know, to be a
student in the great school at Nashville, hovered like a star above this
child-woman amid her work and worry, and she studied doggedly. There
were the Dowells from their farm over toward Alexandria,--Fanny, with
her smooth black face and wondering eyes; Martha, brown and dull; the
pretty girl-wife of a brother, and the younger brood.

There were the Burkes,--two brown and yellow lads, and a tiny
haughty-eyed girl. Fat Reuben's little chubby girl came, with golden
face and old-gold hair, faithful and solemn. 'Thenie was on hand
early,--a jolly, ugly, good-hearted girl, who slyly dipped snuff and
looked after her little bow-legged brother. When her mother could spare
her, 'Tildy came,--a midnight beauty, with star