e, I thought I had made a mistake in entering school, and did not
begin to see that I had done properly until I had been there for eight
or nine months. I asked for an excuse to leave school early in the first
term; it was denied me. I tried to sell my trunk for $7, so that I might
run away. I had a penchant for running away from disagreeable
surroundings. I was offered $6, but for the sake of the difference of $1
I decided to remain.

I do not hesitate to say that each day I live in my heart I most
heartily thank the good friends who have made it possible for Tuskegee
to be; I am also most grateful that I was able to reach it and receive
the training which I received there. I did nothing great while at
Tuskegee, but I remember with pride that I gave no trouble in any way
during my sojourn.

I used my spare hours making picture-frames, repairing window-shades,
making flower-stands and flower-boxes, and working flower-gardens for
the various Faculty families. The money received I saved until the end
of the school term. At the end of each term there were always a large
number of students who cared nothing for their books, and all but gave
them away. Looking three months ahead, I bought these books and sold
them to new students who entered the following year.

One year alone I cleared $40 in this way. The second-hand book business
among the students began from this effort on my part to add to my little
pile of cash money.

Having completed the course with a class of thirty-one members, May 26,
1896, I started straight for my home, Meridian, Miss.

For six years, as a student, I had been at Tuskegee and under its
influences; now I had only my conscience to dictate to me and to keep me
straight. Feeling that I could not do much good at Meridian, I started
for Texas, having had a position promised me.

I reached Mobile, Ala., while en route, and heard that Miss Mary
Clinton, previously mentioned, was in Tampa, Fla. Feeling that she still
had some interest in me, I again decided to go to her for advice.

I reached the city of Tampa with but a small sum in my pocket. The town
was undergoing a "boom," and I was certain that it would not be long
before I would be earning something, but, to my disappointment, I found
about thirty men looking for every job in sight. After much wearying
search I became thoroughly convinced that Tampa was too large a city not
to give me something to do besides "looking up into the air." Finall