I confess that the securing of this money in this way was a great
surprise to me, as well as a source of gratification. Up to that time
I never had had in my possession so much money as one hundred dollars
at a time, and the loan which I had asked General Marshall for seemed
a tremendously large sum to me. The fact of my being responsible for
the repaying of such a large amount of money weighed very heavily upon
me.
I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new
farm. At the time we occupied the place there were [sic] standing
upon it a cabin, formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen, a
stable, and an old hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of these
structures in use. The stable was repaired and used as a recitation-
room, and very presently the hen-house was utilized for the same
purpose.
I recall that one morning, when I told an old coloured man who
lived near, and who sometimes helped me, that our school had grown so
large that it would be necessary for us to use the hen-house for
school purposes, and that I wanted him to help me give it a thorough
cleaning out the next day, he replied, in the most earnest manner:
"What you mean, boss? You sholy ain't gwine clean out de hen-house in
de _day_-time?"
Nearly all the work of getting the new location ready for school
purposes was done by the students after school was over in the
afternoon.
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