nights thereafter, my mother heard a tapping on the kitchen window, and,
on going to the door, saw Uncle Isaac standing there--alone. "What in
the world are you doing here?" was the question of my mother. "Whar's
mistis'?" was the interrogative answer. My mother went to call the
mistress, who, white as a sheet repeated the question. "Mistis', I done
de bes' I could." Going a few paces from the door, while the soft
southern moon shone pitilessly through the solemn pines, he brought the
dead body of his young master and laid it tenderly at his mother's feet.
He had brought his dead "massa" on his back a distance of more than
twenty miles from the battle-field, thus faithfully keeping his promise.
Such an act of devotion can never be forgotten while memory holds its
sacred office. Not one case of nameless crime was ever heard in those
days, though the flower of the womanhood of the South was left
practically helpless in the hands of black men in Southern plantations.

"But as a faithful watch-dog stands and guards with jealous eye,
He cared for master's wife and child, and at the door would lie,
To shed his blood in their defense, 'gainst traitors, thieves, and knaves,
Altho' those masters went to fight to keep them helpless slaves."

Some have claimed that, instead of putting so much money in churches,
the Negro, after the war, should have built mills and factories, and
thus would have advanced more rapidly in civilization; but I rejoice
that he did build churches, and to-day can say that of the three hundred
millions he has accumulated, more than forty millions are in church
property in the sixteen Southern States. This shows his fidelity and
gratitude to God, and that by intuition he had grasped the fundamental
fact that faith and love and morality are greater bulwarks for the
perpetuity of a nation than material wealth; that somehow he was in
accord with God's holy mandate that "man does not live by bread alone."
Guided by a superior wisdom, he first sought the kingdom of heaven, and
it does seem that "all these things" are slowly being added to him.
Education and wealth, unsanctified by the grace of God, are after all,
curses rather than a blessing. We are to rise, not by our strong bodies,
our intellectual powers, or material wealth, although these are
necessary concomitants, but by the virtue, character, and honesty of our
men and women.

We are proud of our 30,000 teachers, 2,000 graduated doctors