When I was through, I reported to the head teacher.

She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt.
She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and benches.

When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I guess you will do to enter this institution." I was one of the happiest souls on Earth.

The sweeping of that room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction.

I have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed.
I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton Institute.
Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same experience that I had, but about the same period there were hundreds who found their way to Hampton and other institutions after experiencing something of the same difficulties that I went through.