scowling South that was, are lost in
the gladsome shouts of the South which, please God, is yet to be.

But lest we linger too long, let us enter school here with Belton.
On the Monday following the Sunday night previously indicated, Belton
walked into the general assembly room to take his seat with the other
three hundred and sixty pupils. It was the custom for the school to
thus assemble for devotional exercises. The teachers sat in a row
across the platform, facing the pupils. The president sat immediately
in front of the desk, in the center of the platform, and the teachers
sat on either side of him.

To Belton's surprise, he saw a colored man sitting on the right
side of and next to the president. He was sitting there calmly,
self-possessed, exactly like the rest. He crossed his legs and stroked
his beard in a most matter of fact way. Belton stared at this colored
man, with his lips apart and his body bent forward. He let his eyes
scan the faces of all the white teachers, male and female, but would
end up with a stare at the colored man sitting there. Finally, he
hunched his seat-mate with his elbow and asked what man that was. He
was told that it was the colored teacher of the faculty.

Belton knew that there was a colored teacher in the school but he had
no idea that he would be thus honored with a seat with the rest of
the teachers. A broad, happy smile spread over his face, and his
eyes danced with delight. He had, in his boyish heart, dreamed of the
equality of the races and sighed and hoped for it; but here, he beheld
it in reality. Though he, as a rule, shut his eyes when prayer was
being offered, he kept them open that morning, and peeped through his
fingers at that thrilling sight,--a colored man on equal terms with
the white college professors.

Just before the classes were dismissed to their respective class
rooms, the teachers came together in a group to discuss some matter,
in an informal way. The colored teacher was in the center of the group
and discussed the matter as freely as any; and he was listened to with
every mark of respect. Belton kept a keen watch on the conference
and began rubbing his hands and chuckling to himself with delight at
seeing the colored teacher participating on equal terms with the other
teachers.

The colored teacher's views seemed about to prevail, and as one after
another the teachers seemed to fall in line with him Belton could not
contain himself longer, but clapp