and that I meant to be an educated man if I could. I soon began to carry
out my purpose, for in a few weeks I left my employment in that family
and went back into the country, from whence I had gone to Mobile, and
took the examination and began teaching public school. By this means, I
earned money enough to go back to Mobile and become a pupil of Emerson
Institute, not in the fall of 1873, as I had hoped to do, but in the
spring of 1874. I shall ever feel grateful to the man who threw over the
fence for me the article from which I learned about that good school,
for I am sure I am quite a different man to-day from what I would have
been but for reading that article. Precious to me is the memory of those
days during which I took tuition in the night-school, where the key was
put into my hand and the door of knowledge was opened to me.

Next to God I am grateful to the American Missionary Association for
having received training in a Christian school, where I was led to
Christ and felt called to the Christian ministry. When I lived on the
plantation, before I went to Mobile and received instruction in the
Christian school, I had heard the uneducated colored ministers preach
and they had endeavored to lead me to Christ, but I could not accept
Christ in the way they had presented Him to me. I remember well how they
told us that in order to find Christ we must fast and pray for a number
of days. I remember, too, the unsuccessful attempt which I made to give
myself to Jesus in this way. I was a farm boy and was plowing hard every
day, and it was hard work for a boy of my age to follow the mule all day
in the tough grass, and I always felt like eating when meal time came,
but still I tried to become a Christian by doing as the minister said I
must, and so for a few days I ate no breakfast, no dinner, and no
supper, though I worked on. They told us, also, that we must not go to
bed at night, for if we did the wicked one would make us sleep all night
and we would fail to pray through the night, and they said we must pray