While they could locate the Desert
of Sahara or the capital of China on an artificial globe, I found
out that the girls could not locate the proper places for the
knives and forks on an actual dinner-table, or the places on
which the bread and meat should be set.
I had to summon a good deal of courage to take a student who had
been studying cube root and "banking and discount," and explain
to him that the wisest thing for him to do first was thoroughly
master the multiplication table.
The number of pupils increased each week, until by the end of the
first month there were nearly fifty. Many of them, however, said
that, as they could remain only for two or three months, they
wanted to enter a high class and get a diploma the first year if
possible.
At the end of the first six weeks a new and rare face entered the
school as a co-teacher. This was Miss Olivia A. Davidson, who
later became my wife. Miss Davidson was born in Ohio, and
received her preparatory education in the public schools of that
state. When little more than a girl, she heard of the need of
teachers in the South. She went to the state of Mississippi and
began teaching there. Later she taught in the city of Memphis.
While teaching in Mississippi, one of her pupils became ill with
smallpox.
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