dollars ahead. I then decided to go to
school somewhere and to learn something. I found my first opportunity in
Montgomery, Ala. I went there in November, 1883, and entered the Swayne
School.

Everything was new and strange to me. I had never seen so large a
schoolhouse before. I was dazed, bewildered. There I was, a great, grown
man, in the class with little children, who looked upon me as a
curiosity, something to be wondered at. I, too, looked at them with
amazement, for it seemed next to impossible for young boys and girls to
know as much as they seemed to know.

I can not say that I was heartily received by the pupils. I was awkward,
and I discovered that the city children did not find me pleasingly
companionable.

It is probable that at this point I should have grown discouraged and
given up had I not met that great and good man, Rev. Robert C. Bedford,
who is now, as he has been for many years, secretary of the board of
trustees of the Tuskegee Institute, and who travels among and reports
upon the work of Tuskegee graduates and former students, but who was at
that time pastor of the First Congregational Church in Montgomery. I
regularly attended his church and the Sunday-school connected therewith,
and received such help and encouragement from him as but few men can
impart to others.

It was he who first told me of Tuskegee and advised me to enter there. I
felt that this advice, if heeded, would work for my good. I was admitted
to Tuskegee for the session beginning September, 1884, three years after
the school had been opened.

When I entered Tuskegee I was filled with loathing for all forms of
manual labor. I had been a slave to toil all my life and had resolved
that, if it were possible for a colored man to make a living by doing
something besides farming, splitting rails, or picking and hoeing
cotton, I would be one of that number. I was compelled at the school,
however, like the others, to work at some industry. I did some work on
the farm and was one of the school's "boss" janitors.

[Illustration: STUDENTS PRUNING PEACH-TREES.]

Though I had no real inclination to learn a trade or to perform any kind
of manual toil, I did desire to be useful, and throughout my whole
school life at Tuskegee I had visions of myself seated in an office
pondering over Blackstone, Kent, and Storey, with a "shingle" on the
outside announcing my profession to all passers-by.

After spending some time in Tuskegee and