le at Tuskegee
was Mr. Washington's Sunday evening talks to the students. He used to
tell us that after getting our education we should return to our homes
and there help the people. He said that the people were supporting
Tuskegee in order that we might be able to help the masses of our
people. I could understand every word he said, and too, I felt always
that he was talking directly to me. These talks of Dr. Washington's
changed the course of my whole life and they are responsible for my
being at the Snow Hill School today.

It was when I reached the senior class that I came in personal touch
with Dr. Washington, as he taught that class in two or three subjects.
Here I could study him as I was never able to do before. He had a
thorough grasp upon all subjects he taught and would accept nothing but
the same from his students.

As the time was nearing for my graduation, I was deeply worried about my
Commencement suit. All of the other members of the class were sending
home for their suits or for the money with which to get them, but I knew
that my aunt was not able to help me, so I was at a loss to know where I
should get mine. Finally, I decided to write to Mr. R. O. Simpson of
Furman, Alabama, the man on whose plantation I was reared, and ask him
to loan me fifteen dollars. I prayed during the entire time it took me
to write the letter and when I had sealed it I prayed over it again. In
two days' time I had an answer with the fifteen dollars. So all of my
troubles and worries were banished and I proceeded to get ready for
Commencement. I graduated second, with a class of twenty, on May 17,
1893. Our class motto was "Deeds Not Words."

The morning of May 18th found me packing my few clothes in an old trunk
which one of the young men had given me, and getting ready to return to
Snow Hill. All the while I was thinking of what I could do to live up to
this new training which I had received at Tuskegee, and above all, how
could I make good our class motto: "Deeds Not Words." Although it has
been now well nigh 25 years since my graduation, those words still ring
in my ears: "Deeds Not Words." I should like so to live that when the
summons come for me to join Dr. Washington in the Great Beyond, these
words might be written as an epitaph on my tomb:

"DEEDS NOT WORDS."

CHAPTER 5.

RECONNOITERING.

When I returned from Tuskegee on the 19th of May, 1893, I found my old
aunt, her daughter and her grandson still