e drawing of
the plans to the putting in of the electric fixtures, without going off
the grounds for a single workman.

Not a few times, when a new student has been led into the temptation of
marring the looks of some building by leadpencil marks or by the cuts
of a jack-knife, I have heard an old student remind him: "Don't do that.
That is our building. I helped put it up."

In the early days of the school I think my most trying experience was
in the matter of brickmaking. As soon as we got the farm work reasonably
well started, we directed our next efforts toward the industry of making
bricks. We needed these for use in connection with the erection of our
own buildings; but there was also another reason for establishing this
industry. There was no brickyard in the town, and in addition to our own
needs there was a demand for bricks in the general market.

I had always sympathized with the "Children of Israel," in their task
of "making bricks without straw," but ours was the task of making bricks
with no money and no experience.

In the first place, the work was hard and dirty, and it was difficult
to get the students to help. When it came to brickmaking, their distaste
for manual labour in connection with book education became especially
manifest. It was not a pleasant task for one to stand in the mud-pit for
hours, with the mud up to his knees. More than one man became disgusted
and left the school.

We tried several locations before we opened up a pit that furnished
brick clay. I had always supposed that brickmaking was very simple, but
I soon found out by bitter experience that it required special skill and
knowledge, particularly in the burning of the bricks. After a good deal
of effort we moulded about twenty-five thousand bricks, and put them
into a kiln to be burned. This kiln turned out to be a failure, because
it was not properly constructed or properly burned. We began at once,
however, on a second kiln. This, for some reason, also proved a failure.
The failure of this kiln made it still more difficult to get the
students to take part in the work. Several of the teachers, however,
who had been trained in the industries at Hampton, volunteered their
services, and in some way we succeeded in getting a third kiln ready for
burning. The burning of a kiln required about a week. Toward the latter
part of the week, when it seemed as if we were going to have a good
many thousand bricks in a few hours, in the mi