I confess that the securing of this money in this way was a great
surprise to me, as well as a source of gratification. Up to that
time I never had had in my possession so much money as one
hundred dollars at a time, and the loan which I had asked General
Marshall for seemed a tremendously large sum to me. The fact of
my being responsible for the repaying of such a large amount of
money weighed very heavily upon me.
I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new
farm. At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon
it a cabin, formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen, a
stable, and an old hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of
these structures in use. The stable was repaired and used as a
recitation-room, and very presently the hen-house was utilized
for the same purpose.
I recall that one morning, when I told an old coloured man who
lived near, and who sometimes helped me, that our school had
grown so large that it would be necessary for us to use the
hen-house for school purposes, and that I wanted him to help me
give it a thorough cleaning out the next day, he replied, in the
most earnest manner: "What you mean, boss? You sholy ain't gwine
clean out de hen-house in de day-time?"
Nearly all the work of getting the new location ready for school
purposes was done by the students after school was over in the
afternoon.
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