The good
man whose wealth had made the institution a possibility lived in
the neighborhood. Its trustees were of the best type of pioneer
manhood, and its pupils came from all parts of the South and
West.
Its Principal--I wonder now that I could have lived so near her
for a year without becoming acquainted with her,--but her high
local reputation as an intellectual woman inspired me with awe,
and I was foolishly diffident. One day, however, upon the
persuasion of my friends at Vine Lodge, who knew my wishes for a
higher education, I went with them to call upon her. We talked
about the matter which had been in my thoughts so long, and she
gave me not only a cordial but an urgent invitation to come and
enroll myself as a student. There were arrangements for those who
could not incur the current expenses, to meet them by doing part
of the domestic work, and of these I gladly availed myself. The
stately limestone edifice, standing in the midst of an original
growth of forest-trees, two or three miles from the Mississippi
River, became my home --my student-home--for three years.
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