The
first night I slept under both of them, and the second night I slept
on top of them; but by watching the other boys I learned my lesson in
this, and have been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to
others.
I was among the youngest of the students who were in Hampton at
the time. Most of the students were men and women -- some as old as
forty years of ago. As I now recall the scene of my first year, I do
not believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into contact
with three or four hundred men and women who were so tremendously in
earnest as these men and women were. Every hour was occupied in study
or work. Nearly all had had enough actual contact with the world to
teach them the need of education. Many of the older ones were, of
course, too old to master the text-books very thoroughly, and it was
often sad to watch their struggles; but they made up in earnest much
of what they lacked in books. Many of them were as poor as I was,
and, besides having to wrestle with their books, they had to struggle
with a poverty which prevented their having the necessities of life.
Many of them had aged parents who were dependent upon them, and some
of them were men who had wives whose support in some way they had to
provide for.
The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of
every one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home.
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