who could read, and I was too timid to
approach any of the white people. In some way, within a few weeks, I
mastered the greater portion of the alphabet. In all my efforts to learn
to read my mother shared fully my ambition and sympathized with me and
aided me in every way that she could. Though she was totally ignorant so
far as mere book knowledge was concerned, she had high ambitions for her
children, and a large fund of good hard common sense, which seemed to
enable her to meet and master every situation. If I have done anything in
life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my
mother.

The opening of the school in the Kanawha Valley brought to me one of the
keenest disappointments that I ever experienced. I had been working in a
salt-furnace for several months, and my stepfather had discovered that I
had a financial value, and so, when the school opened, he decided that he
could not spare me from my work. This decision seemed to cloud my every
ambition. The disappointment was made all the more severe by reason of the
fact that my place of work was where I could see the happy children
passing to and from school morning and afternoon. Despite this
disappointment, however, I determined that I would learn something anyway.
I applied myself with greater earnestness than ever to the mastering of
what was in the blue-back speller.

My mother sympathized with me in my disappointment and sought to comfort
me in all the ways she could and to help me find a way to learn. After a
while I succeeded in making arrangements with the teacher to give me some
lessons at night, after the day's work was done. These night lessons were
so welcome that I think I learned more at night than the other children
did during the day. My own experiences in the night-school gave me faith
in the night-school idea, with which, in after years, I had to do both at
Hampton and Tuskegee. But my boyish heart was still set upon going to
day-school and I let no opportunity slip to push my case. Finally I won,
and was permitted to go to the school in the day for a few months, with
the understanding that I was to rise early in the morning and work in the
furnace till nine o'clock, and return immediately after school closed in
the afternoon for at least two hours more of work.

The schoolhouse was some distance from the furnace, and as I had to work
till nine o'clock, and the school opened at nine, I found myself in a
difficulty.