ssive years our crops had failed and my father was more than
$500 in debt. The prospect of interesting him in any project that meant
the expenditure of money was discouraging, but an eager desire to secure
an education led me to make him a proposition, viz.: that he should
permit me during the next year, 1893, to have full and complete charge
of the farm, and if I succeeded in settling all of his indebtedness I
was to be released to attend school at Tuskegee, provided I could secure
admittance, whether he cleared any money or not. This proposition my
father readily agreed to. He sympathized with my ambitions, but the
heavy burden of carrying a large family with short-crop returns dwarfed
whatever good intentions he might have.

On the first of January, 1893, those of the family who could work joined
me in starting early and working late during the whole of the year. We
ran a two-horse farm. From that year's work we gathered 25 bales of
cotton, 800 bushels of corn, 300 bushels of cow-peas, 250 gallons of
sugar-cane sirup, 5 wagon-loads of pumpkins, a great amount of hay and
fodder, and picked at night for neighbors about us, white and black, 25
bales of cotton. We had rented two mules and the wagon used that year,
but now at the close bought two younger, stronger mules and a new wagon
and paid cash for the whole outfit. We settled our indebtedness with
everybody, and my father, who had earnestly worked under my supervision
along with the others, was very, very happy. Of course, we had a very
small balance left--not enough to be of any service to me in keeping me
in school except I should be allowed to help myself by working. After
"laying the crops by" I made home-made baskets during the summer and
sold them, realizing about $16. In one year I had accomplished a task my
father thought impossible of accomplishment. He religiously kept his
word, and was as enthusiastic about my getting off to school as I was.

I had now learned more of the Tuskegee Institute, and was impatient to
reach there. Others, too, became eager and enthusiastic, and so when I
started, January 19, 1894, it was a red-letter event in our little
community. I left home with only the $16 I had saved from the sale of my
baskets. The next morning after reaching Tuskegee I was piloted to the
Principal's office and my recommendations requested. I was puzzled. I
did not know what was wanted. I had not followed the usual routine and
written for permission to en