pointment, and determined if it came to bear it alone.
One day a professor called me to him and said: "You have written to the
Governor, and his reply has come." With anxious, nervous silence, I
"waited for the verdict," and when it came in an affirmative, how happy
and joyous I felt! How determined to push on to the bright goal before me!

Meantime I had written a history of my life, and through assistance from
ever kind friends had succeeded in securing its publication. A copy of it
was sent to the Governor, as a tiny token of my appreciation of his
kindness. I afterward accompanied a delegation from our school to
Annapolis, where we gave an entertainment. The Governor, coming up to our
little group, said, in cheerful tones, "I am going to see if I can
recognize the one who wrote the book." And in pursuance of this
announcement, easily selected me, and with kindly tones and hearty grasp
of the hand, spoke many words of comfort, which are still carefully held
in my casket of gems as

"Treasures guarded with jealous care
And kept as sacred tokens."

Continuing my course of studies, I graduated in 1860 with, I hope, a fair
degree of honor to myself and my instructors. Just previous to this time
there came among our many visitors a good friend from Loudon county,
Virginia, named Richard Henry Taylor, who promised if I would visit his
home he would furnish me every facility for the sale of my book; and of
him I shall have more to say hereafter.

Now commenced the real struggle of life. Alone I must brave the world, and
with patience bear its frowns or enjoy its smiles, as the case might be.
Alone I must earn my bread.

Meagre were many times the means and scanty was the allowance, yet they
came in the hour of need as manna in the wilderness, ofttimes wet with the
dews of heavenly love; and ever, in my laborious pilgrimage, I have been
allowed to stand upon Mount Gerizim, to bless the people and the "rulers
of the land."

CHAPTER IV.

"Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait."

Deeming it proper to inaugurate my work in our nation's capital, I left my
"Alma Mater" with all the trepidation of a child going out from the
home-roof, and rushed into the exciting and excited vortex, where
centralize our national interests, and where, as it were, throbs the great
national heart, the city of Washington. I was ki