ep it clean, was rather a hard problem for me to
solve. In some way I managed to get on till the teachers learned that
I was in earnest and meant to succeed, and then some of them were kind
enough to see that I was partly supplied with second-hand clothing that
had been sent in barrels from the North. These barrels proved a blessing
to hundreds of poor but deserving students. Without them I question
whether I should ever have gotten through Hampton.

When I first went to Hampton I do not recall that I had ever slept in
a bed that had two sheets on it. In those days there were not many
buildings there, and room was very precious. There were seven other boys
in the same room with me; most of them, however, students who had been
there for some time. The sheets were quite a puzzle to me. The first
night I slept under both of them, and the second night I slept on top
of them; but by watching the other boys I learned my lesson in this, and
have been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to others.

I was among the youngest of the students who were in Hampton at the
time. Most of the students were men and women--some as old as forty
years of age. As I now recall the scene of my first year, I do not
believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into contact with
three or four hundred men and women who were so tremendously in earnest
as these men and women were. Every hour was occupied in study or work.
Nearly all had had enough actual contact with the world to teach them
the need of education. Many of the older ones were, of course, too old
to master the text-books very thoroughly, and it was often sad to watch
their struggles; but they made up in earnest much of what they lacked
in books. Many of them were as poor as I was, and, besides having to
wrestle with their books, they had to struggle with a poverty which
prevented their having the necessities of life. Many of them had aged
parents who were dependent upon them, and some of them were men who had
wives whose support in some way they had to provide for.

The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of every
one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home. No one
seemed to think of himself. And the officers and teachers, what a rare
set of human beings they were! They worked for the students night and
day, in seasons and out of season. They seemed happy only when they were
helping the students in some manner. Whenever it is wri