“The more I thought of it, the more undecided I was what I could do, or what my mother could do for me, I knew, however, that the Lord could do everything.

“Well, the nest time I met the good-natured teacher who managed the school, I made bold to ask him to allow me to tell him all about it, and this was his reply.  ’Our Lord made that promise long before the discovery of America and the establishment of the peculiar institutions of this country.  If he had lived at this day, I reckon,’ he continued with a look of drollery, ’he would have said “Ask and ye shall receive—­if you aint a nigger.”  I can’t take you into my school because you are black, but I’ll send you down to the American Missionary school at Chattanooga.  You can ask and receive there whether you are black or white.’

“So, shortly after he told my experience to the teacher in the town, who arranged that my mother should take me and the cow to a little farm just out of the city, giving me an opportunity to attend his school regularly until I was fitted to enter an institution of a higher grade.  I then went away and pursued a course of study for six years, teaching during the summer and receiving aid from my mother, who kept the cow all the while for her own support and my assistance.  I asked, I received, but not just in the way I hoped.”

When he had finished speaking, I took him heartily by the hand, told him of my early visit to the mountain and the bullet still in my possession.  I talked with him about his teachers, his struggles for self-help, his aim to work for the progress of the church and his consecration to the duties of the Christian ministry.  I conversed with him in reference to others of his acquaintance and believe that his experience serves to illustrate the ingenuity of the colored people in seeking their own advancement.

  “They climb like corals, grave on grave,
  But pave a path that’s sunward,
  They’re beaten back in many a fray,
    Yet newer strength they borrow;
  And where the vanguard rests to-day,
    The rear shall camp to-morrow.”

* * * * *

RECEIPTS FOR JANUARY, 1888.

MAINE, $977.34.

Auburn.  SAMUEL J.M.  PERKINS, to const.
himself L.M. ...$30.00

Bangor.  Hammond St. Ch. ...15.50
Bangor.  Center Ch., for Oahe Ind’l Sch. ...5.00

Bath.  Winter St. Ch., 100; Central Cong. 
Ch. and Soc., 34 ...134.00

Belfast.  Miss E.M.  Pond, Bbl. of C.; Miss
G. Longfellow, Bbl. of C., for Wilmington,
N.C.

Brewer.  Mrs. C.S.  Hardy, 10; M. Hardy,
10, for Indian M. ...20.00

Brunswick.  Mrs. S.C.L.  Clement, for
Student Aid, Atlanta U. ...25.00

Brunswick.  Sab.  Sch. of Cong.  Ch., for
Indian M. ...8.10

Castine.  Sab.  Sch. of Cong.  Ch. ...5.00

Castine.  Class 9, Trin.  Sab.  Sch., for Student
Aid, Tougaloo U. ...2.32