The scholars were early given to understand that the last monthly examinations would be more than usually difficult; that they would be oral as well as written, and that very much would depend upon the results. The last four days of the school year were given up to the examinations. If the readers of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY could have hurried through the deep sands of Wilmington’s streets, to our school building on one of those days, they would have seen four rooms crowded with anxious workers, telling with tongue or pen, what they had been learning during the months past. Some of the pupils, after writing steadily for two or three hours at a time begged the privilege of continuing their work at the noon recess and after school hours. The papers spoke for the thoroughness of the work that they had done. Upon the walls were hung map drawings, specimens of penmanship and of freehand drawing, that would compare well with exhibits which I have seen in rooms of the same grades in the best schools in the North. In the First Primary Room were two things of especial interest: a table covered with needle-work made by the smallest girls of the school, and two sets of papers placed side by side, showing the penmanship, spelling, figures, etc., of the same pupil in October, 1882, and in May, 1883. The work of the pupils of that room at the number-table, and their writing and reading, encourage us that there is reason for hope in the coming generation of colored people. The closing exercises of the school were held Tuesday evening, May 29th. The hall, the aisles, entries, doors and windows were crowded. The men even climbed the verandas to reach us. The pupils had flooded us with the choicest flowers, grasses and foliage, and the hall was beautifully decorated. The part the pupils had in adorning it spoke well for their taste. At the appointed time the audience of between four and five hundred was called to order, and the programme commenced. For two hours and a half the throng sat or stood, listening to recitations, declamations, dialogues, essays, one oration, songs, etc. I wish the people of the North who question the promise of this race could have been present. There was hardly one hesitation in the recitations; the essays and oration showed thought and good English; and little boys and girls gave concert recitations in perfect unison. Important features of the programme were, a tableau called “The tempted boy and the guardian angel,” designed to give an object lesson on temperance, and an illustrated poem by pupils of the Grammar and Normal Room. Both of these exercises proved the pupils’ readiness to understand and their quickness to execute. The teacher in charge had but little time to teach them, yet everything was done with ease and rapidity.