rtinet, the family
otherwise being one of the chief in the town. The sequel proved,
however, that common report is oftentimes not to be trusted; for while
the ex-slave boy made an excellent house-servant, the discipline he
underwent in the officer's house was just such as he needed, and could
not fail to be beneficial to him.

Having resolved to resign a situation which he valued, and which, most
probably, his mother would have been well content for him to retain, the
would-be student prepared to start, being unhampered by anything in the
way of luggage beyond a bundle that could easily be carried in one hand.
The journey alone was a very formidable undertaking, much more so at
that time than would be the case to-day. As might have been expected,
the ambitious youth soon made the painful discovery that he was very
inadequately equipped for his journey. The difficulties of the way were
also greatly increased by the fact that he belonged to a proscribed
race. The distance was so great that money was wanted for food and for
travelling fares; but the scant available supply very speedily ran out.
Of course, there were roadside houses of rest and of refreshment into
which negroes could not gain admittance, even though he might carry a
good supply of cash. He soon found out that a boy of colour could not
hope to find lodging in an hotel intended for white people; and on
reaching Richmond, footsore and famished with hunger, he was so utterly
impecunious that, for some nights in succession, after earning a little
by day, he had to repeat the experience of "sleeping out." The wonder is
that, in the case of so young a boy, all of this suffering did not damp
his ardour and discourage his still persevering. So far as can be
discovered, however, he never did lose his hold of the anchor of hope.
Is it not a singular and a suggestive thing that quite a number of
well-known men, who afterwards won literary fame or distinguished
commercial success, were correspondingly adventurous in having to "sleep
out," or to walk the streets through the livelong night in order to keep
themselves warm, because they lacked the money wherewith to pay for a
bed? Dr Johnson went through this experience before he became the
literary autocrat of the eighteenth century. So also did John Cassell
when he came to London, with only a few pence in his pocket, not so very
long before the founding of that printing and publishing house, still
named after him, which