The week beginning May 21 was given up to examinations. The pupils have in the main done well. Many of them in advancement and aptness will compare well with white children. By reason of a re-arrangement in the course of study, there was no graduating class this year. However, on the evening of May 25, we had an exhibition given by the scholars. The stage at the back was prettily draped with the national colors, and flowers were scattered in profusion everywhere. At the appointed hour the room was filled with the parents of the pupils and other friends of the schools. The programme was a miscellaneous one, made up of tableaux, songs, dialogues and recitations. Some of these reflected great credit upon the pupils and their teachers. I say _some_ of them, because some parts were rendered so excellently as to astonish one who did not expect anything _very_ good from negro scholars. One beautiful scene was, "Winding the May Pole," by twelve little girls dressed in white. Another striking piece was, "What Alcohol has done for the Nations." Different persons in appropriate costume represented the various nations of Europe and one represented Africa, each in a short speech stating what havoc alcohol had made. One young lad caused a good deal of merriment in declaiming "Theology at the Quarters," in which he drew a picture of the candidate for heaven being subjected to a close examination before he could be admitted through the "_Alaplaster_ gate." "The questions," said the declaimer, "you must answer mighty straight. And de _watermillion_ question gwine to cause a heap o' trouble." When one of these colored people declaims in the Negro dialect, it is a treat. There is nothing artificial about it. The year has been a prosperous one. The school-rooms have been crowded to their utmost capacity. 312 different pupils have attended during some part of the year, and average daily attendance has been 230. {pg 206} Excellent progress has been made. Another teacher is needed. More and more are the colored people awakening to their real need--deliverance from the bonds of ignorance. You older people in the North gave your sons to free the slave from human task-masters. We who have arisen since the war look upon that as the noblest sacrifice which the history of our country presents. But there still remains the great problem of freeing the black man from the slavery of ignorance, superstition and sin. The work increases upon our hands. The South is struggling to rise. It has this problem of illiteracy to settle. We who have grown since the war could not carry a musket in '62, but we are willing to carry the Speller and the Bible now, and we do not consider this work one whit less honorable or necessary than the art of war. Do you?