A man who was for twenty-five years president of a normal school in the mountains, visited the moonlight schools and on hearing the students recite this poem, said, “If these men and women learn nothing else besides this poem during the session it has been worth while for them to attend.” It was Longfellow’s “Psalm of Life” and the sentiment expressed in these two stanzas found an answering echo in their hearts: In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle, Be a hero in the strife. ... Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate, Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. CHAPTER V A MOONLIGHT SCHOOL INSTITUTE The people clamored for the moonlight schools to open the next year. They, and not the teachers, took the initiative and pressed the matter. The teachers responded heartily. Prior to the opening of the second session, a moonlight school institute was held--the first institute for night school teachers in America, if not in the world. The methods of teaching adult illiterates, materials to use, ways and means of reaching the stubborn and getting them into school and other things relative to the problem of educating adults were discussed. Teachers were not compelled by law to attend this institute, as they were the institute for day-school work but, nevertheless, they did attend, paying their own expenses during the session and participating more earnestly than they had ever been known to participate in any other institute. They compared their experiences of the previous session, and some cases of supreme sacrifice and rare heroism were unconsciously revealed. Most of them had succeeded with but little effort. They had but to meet the rising tide of eager, hungry-minded adults who came rushing to the schools in almost overwhelming numbers. Others had been misunderstood, but had stemmed the buffeting waves of criticism and misunderstanding and, after being tossed about, had ridden to success. None had failed--not one, though some had been compelled to make two or three efforts before they finally succeeded. One had tried it alone and failed, then enlisted the children as recruiting officers and sent them far and wide to gather in their elders, which they did with remarkable success. One young woman--a perfect blend of the Scotch-Irish type--who was teaching her first school when the moonlight schools were inaugurated told her story with a twinkle in her eye that seemed to belie any suggestion of hardships endured.