The Mission School at Marietta was opened Oct. 15th, 1877, with four pupils only. The 2d day of January, 1878, there were fourteen. The end of January found a roll of thirty-seven, which has steadily increased to seventy-two. It may be seen that the growth of this school was not very rapid, from the fact that it was opposed by many of the colored people in the city. But the more water they threw on this little spark, the brighter and faster it burned, till it has become a centre of attraction. Friends of this work are fast multiplying, and the future seems bright. My school is composed of some very bright and promising young men and women, seven of whom go out every summer to teach. The studies are spelling, reading, writing, geography, composition, grammar, and arithmetic. To this work is attached a literary society, known as the Junto, the exercises of which consist of reading, speaking, discussions, and singing. It was likewise opposed, but is now as largely attended as any church in the city. * * * * * MISSISSIPPI. An Old School—Temperance Work—The Gourd Family. MISS ANNA HARWOOD, GRENADA. Our school, in age, ranks among the older ones, having been established in the Spring of 1866, and we have been its teachers continuously up to the present time. First, we were missionary teachers; after a time the Freedmen’s Bureau lent us its aid, until the organization of free schools by the State; thereafter, we taught the public school until last year. During all these years of varying fortunes our school has steadily progressed, until there has grown up around us a generation of young people, not great, nor wise, nor learned, only as they are compared with those who have gone before them; but, standing out from the blackness of darkness of twelve years ago, they furnish a bright and hopeful outlook. We organized a Temperance society early in our work here, and it has never died out. We, several years ago, gave the control into the hands of the young people, being only members, for service, when needed. They have changed names, and banners, and badges more than once—just now it is blue ribbon—but the object has always been the same. Our Sunday-school has always claimed our best efforts, and we are glad to know that more than two-thirds of our older scholars are professing Christians. But the work done is but a drop compared with that which is not done. We have lived to see very many hopes and dreams fade out, and to learn that manhood and womanhood are not plants of the gourd family—Jonah’s kind, at least. The knowledge of what we have not done, and cannot do, is sometimes very hard to bear; and, perhaps, we have thus learned to do what we can the more gladly, feeling sure that we, ourselves, grow thereby. And maybe this is a part of the work, for we, too, are our Father’s children. * * * * * THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY. Its Catholicity—Closing Exercises.