In addition to this, I gave private
lessons to several young men whom I was fitting to send to the
Hampton Institute. Without regard to pay and with little thought
of it, I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that I could
teach him. I was supremely happy in the opportunity of being able
to assist somebody else. I did receive, however, a small salary
from the public fund, for my work as a public-school teacher.
During the time that I was a student at Hampton my older brother,
John, not only assisted me all that he could, but worked all of
the time in the coal-mines in order to support the family. He
willingly neglected his own education that he might help me. It
was my earnest wish to help him to prepare to enter Hampton, and
to save money to assist him in his expenses there. Both of these
objects I was successful in accomplishing. In three years my
brother finished the course at Hampton, and he is now holding the
important position of Superintendent of Industries at Tuskegee.
When he returned from Hampton, we both combined our efforts and
savings to send our adopted brother, James, through the Hampton
Institute. This we succeeded in doing, and he is now the
postmaster at the Tuskegee Institute. The year 1877, which was my
second year of teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did the
first.
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