I did not mean
to inconvenience anybody. I simply meant to reach that schoolhouse in
time.
When, however, I found myself at the school for the first time, I
also found myself confronted with two other difficulties. In the
first place, I found that all the other children wore hats or caps on
their heads, and I had neither hat nor cap. In fact, I do not
remember that up to the time of going to school I had ever worn any
kind of covering upon my head, nor do I recall that either I or
anybody else had even thought anything about the need of covering for
my head. But, of course, when I saw how all the other boys were
dressed, I began to feel quite uncomfortable. As usual, I put the
case before my mother, and she explained to me that she had no money
with which to buy a "store hat," which was a rather new institution at
that time among the members of my race and was considered quite the
thing for young and old to own, but that she would find a way to help
me out of the difficulty. She accordingly got two pieces of
"homespun" (jeans) and sewed them together, and I was soon the proud
possessor of my first cap.
The lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained
with me, and I have tried as best as I could to teach it to others. I
have always felt proud, whenever I think of the incident, that my
mother had strength of character enough not to be led into the
temptation of seeming to be that which she was not -- of trying to
impress my schoolmates and others with the fact that she was able to
buy me a "store hat" when she was not.
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