but in the
spring of 1874. I shall ever feel grateful to the man who threw over the
fence for me the article from which I learned about that good school,
for I am sure I am quite a different man to-day from what I would have
been but for reading that article. Precious to me is the memory of those
days during which I took tuition in the night-school, where the key was
put into my hand and the door of knowledge was opened to me.

Next to God I am grateful to the American Missionary Association for
having received training in a Christian school, where I was led to
Christ and felt called to the Christian ministry. When I lived on the
plantation, before I went to Mobile and received instruction in the
Christian school, I had heard the uneducated colored ministers preach
and they had endeavored to lead me to Christ, but I could not accept
Christ in the way they had presented Him to me. I remember well how they
told us that in order to find Christ we must fast and pray for a number
of days. I remember, too, the unsuccessful attempt which I made to give
myself to Jesus in this way. I was a farm boy and was plowing hard every
day, and it was hard work for a boy of my age to follow the mule all day
in the tough grass, and I always felt like eating when meal time came,
but still I tried to become a Christian by doing as the minister said I
must, and so for a few days I ate no breakfast, no dinner, and no
supper, though I worked on. They told us, also, that we must not go to
bed at night, for if we did the wicked one would make us sleep all night
and we would fail to pray through the night, and they said we must pray
all night. For several nights I did not go to bed at all, but would lie
down upon the doorstep that I might get up often through the night and
go down the hill to pray, for we were instructed to "go down in the
valley." Of course after a few days I became tired, sleepy and
discouraged, and gave up. I did not make another attempt till I became a
student in Emerson Institute. One of the lady teachers in that school
became interested in my soul's salvation. She read the Bible to me,
talked to me, and prayed for me, and made the way of life and salvation
seem so plain and simple that it was not long before I accepted the Lord
Jesus as my Saviour.

My heart overflows with gratitude to that Christian lady whenever I
think of my conversion. There is no favor which one person can do for
another so great as that of leading hi