When
I was through, I reported to the head teacher. She was a "Yankee"
woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room
and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief
and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and
benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or
a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I
guess you will do to enter this institution."
I was one of the happiest souls on Earth. The sweeping of that
room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an
examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more
genuine satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since then,
but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed.
I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton
Institute. Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same experience
that I had, but about the same period there were hundreds who found
their way to Hampton and other institutions after experiencing
something of the same difficulties that I went through. The young men
and women were determined to secure an education at any cost.
The sweeping of the recitation-room in the manner that I did it
seems to have paved the way for me to get through Hampton.
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