Soon after I began my first teaching in West Virginia I had picked out four of the brightest and most promising of my pupils, in addition to my two brothers, to whom I have already referred, and had given them special attention, with the view of having them go to Hampton.

They had gone there, and in each case the teachers had found them so well prepared that they entered advanced classes.

This fact, it seems, led to my being called back to Hampton as a teacher.

One of the young men that I sent to Hampton in this way is now Dr.Samuel E.
Courtney, a successful physician in Boston, and a member of the School Board of that city.
About this time the experiment was being tried for the first time, by General Armstrong, of educating Indians at Hampton.

Few people then had any confidence in the ability of the Indians to receive education and to profit by it.