The errors in the South, anxious for eternal life, rightfully feared these schools more than they would have feared factories making powder, moulding balls and fashioning cannons.  But the New South, the South that, in the providence of God, is yet to be, could not have been formed in the womb of time had it not been for these schools.  And so the receding murmurs of the scowling South that was, are lost in the gladsome shouts of the South which, please God, is yet to be.

But lest we linger too long, let us enter school here with Belton.  On the Monday following the Sunday night previously indicated, Belton walked into the general assembly room to take his seat with the other three hundred and sixty pupils.  It was the custom for the school to thus assemble for devotional exercises.  The teachers sat in a row across the platform, facing the pupils.  The president sat immediately in front of the desk, in the center of the platform, and the teachers sat on either side of him.

To Belton’s surprise, he saw a colored man sitting on the right side of and next to the president.  He was sitting there calmly, self-possessed, exactly like the rest.  He crossed his legs and stroked his beard in a most matter of fact way.  Belton stared at this colored man, with his lips apart and his body bent forward.  He let his eyes scan the faces of all the white teachers, male and female, but would end up with a stare at the colored man sitting there.  Finally, he hunched his seat-mate with his elbow and asked what man that was.  He was told that it was the colored teacher of the faculty.

Belton knew that there was a colored teacher in the school but he had no idea that he would be thus honored with a seat with the rest of the teachers.  A broad, happy smile spread over his face, and his eyes danced with delight.  He had, in his boyish heart, dreamed of the equality of the races and sighed and hoped for it; but here, he beheld it in reality.  Though he, as a rule, shut his eyes when prayer was being offered, he kept them open that morning, and peeped through his fingers at that thrilling sight,—­a colored man on equal terms with the white college professors.

Just before the classes were dismissed to their respective class rooms, the teachers came together in a group to discuss some matter, in an informal way.  The colored teacher was in the center of the group and discussed the matter as freely as any; and he was listened to with every mark of respect.  Belton kept a keen watch on the conference and began rubbing his hands and chuckling to himself with delight at seeing the colored teacher participating on equal terms with the other teachers.

The colored teacher’s views seemed about to prevail, and as one after another the teachers seemed to fall in line with him Belton could not contain himself longer, but clapped his hands and gave a loud, joyful, “Ha! ha!”

The eyes of the whole school were on him in an instant, and the faculty turned around to discover the source and cause of the disorder.  But Belton had come to himself as soon as he made the noise, and in a twinkling was as quiet and solemn looking as a mouse.