t I
waited for an answer, and my joy was boundless when it came, setting
forth the requirements for admittance. I sent a portion of the money I
had saved to my father. With the rest I bought some necessary clothing,
and left Deland far behind for Tuskegee.

I shall always remember how little and insignificant I felt when I
entered the school-grounds and was told that all those buildings and all
those acres of ground were a part of the Tuskegee Institute. I had read
of it in the circular of information which was sent me when I applied
for admission, but the realization was, to me, almost overpowering.
After paying my entrance fee and purchasing my school-books I had $15
left. Thus I began what has proved to be a "new life."

Fifteen dollars were, of course, an inadequate sum with which to pay my
expenses through the day-school, and so I was permitted to enter the
night-school, as so many others as poor as I had done. This means that I
was given an opportunity to work at some industry during the day and
attend classes at night. I was not only receiving training at an
industry, being provided with food, shelter, and fuel, and receiving
instruction at night, but I was earning enough over my board to be
placed to my credit in the school's treasury to help pay my board when I
should enter the day-school.

My first term was spent at work on Marshall Farm, where the greater
part of the school's farming was at that time done.

When I entered Tuskegee I had no thought of preparing myself for
returning to farm life. Even the word "farm" brought to my mind visions
of dull, hard work and drudgery without comforts. I had not been at the
Tuskegee Institute long, however, before I was led to know that
"agriculture" is the very highest of all industrial callings. I had
never known that agriculture had so many subdivisions, that soils could
be analyzed and treated, that rotation of crops enriched the soil, that
a certain crop planted season after season on the same soil made it
poor, because it was ridding it of some life-giving chemical. To me
soils simply "wore out." But through lectures and practical experiments
my agricultural horizon began to expand, and a sense of the beauty of
the industry grew upon me.

It was to me a marvelous thing to go into the dairy and take milk but
recently milked, pour it into the Sharpless Separator, set the machine
in motion, and behold a stream of rich, sweet cream flow from one avenue
of escape,