were many so fair that it was difficult to believe that they had Negro blood in them.  And, too, I could not help noticing that many of the girls, particularly those of the delicate brown shades, with black eyes and wavy dark hair, were decidedly pretty.  Among the boys many of the blackest were fine specimens of young manhood, tall, straight, and muscular, with magnificent heads; these were the kind of boys who developed into the patriarchal “uncles” of the old slave regime.

When I left the University, it was with the determination to get my trunk and move out to the school before night.  I walked back across the city with a light step and a light heart.  I felt perfectly satisfied with life for the first time since my mother’s death.  In passing the railroad station I hired a wagon and rode with the driver as far as my stopping-place.  I settled with my landlord and went upstairs to put away several articles I had left out.  As soon as I opened my trunk, a dart of suspicion shot through my heart; the arrangement of things did not look familiar.  I began to dig down excitedly to the bottom till I reached the coat in which I had concealed my treasure.  My money was gone!  Every single bill of it.  I knew it was useless to do so, but I searched through every other coat, every pair of trousers, every vest, and even each pair of socks.  When I had finished my fruitless search, I sat down dazed and heartsick.  I called the landlord up and informed him of my loss; he comforted me by saying that I ought to have better sense than to keep money in a trunk and that he was not responsible for his lodgers’ personal effects.  His cooling words brought me enough to my senses to cause me to look and see if anything else was missing.  Several small articles were gone, among them a black and gray necktie of odd design upon which my heart was set; almost as much as the loss of my money I felt the loss of my tie.

After thinking for a while as best I could, I wisely decided to go at once back to the University and lay my troubles before the president.  I rushed breathlessly back to the school.  As I neared the grounds, the thought came across me, would not my story sound fishy?  Would it not place me in the position of an impostor or beggar?  What right had I to worry these busy people with the results of my carelessness?  If the money could not be recovered, and I doubted that it could, what good would it do to tell them about it?  The shame and embarrassment which the whole situation gave me caused me to stop at the gate.  I paused, undecided, for a moment; then, turned and slowly retraced my steps, and so changed the whole course of my life.