ed and long-horned cows that he had seen at home.

His night-school teachers found that he ceased to sleep in school, and
began asking questions about his lessons, and was soon able to calculate
the number of square yards in an acre and to tell the number of
peach-trees required to plant an acre of land. After he had been at
Tuskegee two or three months the farm-manager came into my office on
a cold, rainy day, and said that William was virtually barefooted, the
soles of his shoes having separated from the uppers, though William
had fastened them together as best he could with bits of wire. In
this condition the farm-instructor found him plowing without a word of
complaint. A pair of second-hand shoes was secured for him, and he was
soon very happy.

I will not take this part of the story further except to say that at the
end of his first year at Tuskegee this young man, having made a start in
his books, and having saved a small sum of money above the cost of his
board, which was credited to his account, entered the next year
our regular day-classes, though still dividing his time between the
class-room and work on the farm.

Toward the end of the year he found himself in need of money with which
to buy books, clothing, etc., and so wrote a carefully worded letter to
Mr. S-----, the white man on whose plantation he had lived, and who had
been, in slavery, the owner of his mother.

In the letter he told Mr. S----- how he got to Tuskegee, what he was
doing, and what his needs were, and asked Mr. S----- to lend him fifteen
dollars. Before receiving this letter Mr. S----- had not thought once
about the boy during his two years' absence; in fact, did not know that
he had left the plantation.

Mr. S----- was a good deal shocked, as well as amused, over such a
request from such a source. The letter went to the wastebasket without
being answered. A few weeks later William sent a second letter, in which
he took it for granted that the first letter had not been received. The
second letter shared the same fate as the first. A third letter reached
Mr. S----- in a few weeks, making the same request. In answer to the
third letter Mr. S----- told me that, moved by some impulse which he
himself never understood, he sent William the fifteen dollars.

Two or three years passed, and Mr. S----- had about forgotten William
and the fifteen dollars; but one morning while sitting upon his porch
a bright young colored man walked up and in