g in showing thus early a certain individuality and
independence of character which she has exhibited all through her
life. In the breaking or loosening of the family relations after the
death of her father she determined to bestow herself upon her Quaker
neighbors. The secret of it, of course, was that the child was
possessed even then with a passion for knowledge which has never since
deserted her. Rarely does a day pass that Mrs. Washington amid the
cares of her household, of the school, and of the many philanthropic
and social enterprises in which she takes a leading part, does not
devote half or three-quarters of an hour to downright study.

"And so it was that Margaret Murray became at seven a permanent part
of the Quaker household, and became to all intents and purposes, so
far as her habits of thought and religious attitude are concerned,
herself a Quaker.

"'And in those early days,' says Mrs. Washington, laughing, 'I learned
easily and quickly. It was only after I grew up that I began to grow
dull. I used to sit up late at night and get up early in the morning
to study my lessons. I was not always a good child, I am sorry to say,
and sometimes I would hide away under the house in order to read and
study.'...

"When Margaret Murray was fourteen years old the good Quaker teacher
said one day, 'Margaret, would thee like to teach?' That very day the
little girl borrowed a long skirt and went downtown to the office of
Judge Ames, and took her examination. It was not a severe examination.
Judge Ames had known Margaret all her life and he had known her
father, and in those days white people were more lenient with Negro
teachers than they are now. They did not expect so much of them. And
so, the next day, Margaret Murray stepped into the schoolroom where
she had been the day before a pupil and became a teacher....

"Then Margaret heard of the school at Nashville--Fisk University--and
she went there. She had a little money when she started to school, and
with that and what she was able to earn at the school and by teaching
during vacations she managed to work her way as--what was termed
rather contemptuously in those days--a 'half-rater.' It was not the
fashion at that time, in spite of the poverty of the colored people,
for students to work their way through school.

"In those days very little had been heard at Fisk of Tuskegee, of
Hampton, or of Booker T. Washington. Students who expected to be
teachers were lo