while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.
For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling of bitterness. In fact, there was pity among the slaves for our former owners. The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated colored people lasted but for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters?
Among the people who had turned out to welcome the former slave's return to the old plantation were several who had been present and taken part in this impressive little ceremony and whose memories of all the old life were still vivid. The little human incidents that they related seemed to complete the picture and give it its proper setting.
It was after this that Dr. Washington stood upon the front steps of the old house and told to the little group of neighbors, white and black, the story of his life since he had gone away. He told how, as he was working one day down in the mines, he had overheard one of the miners during a pause in their work reading from a scrap of paper by the light of a little miner's lamp of a school, called Hampton Institute, where a negro boy, if he was earnest and industrious, could go to school and earn his way working at a trade. Presently the men began discussing this school, and he, Washington, crept close and listened to what they had to say, and made up his mind then and there that he would find that school,
