Through the school: The experiences of a mill boy in securing an education
John Stuart Mill · en
By ten o’clock two classmates rattled into the hospital yard in a
carriage; came into my room, their arms loaded with my best clothes.
“You’ve got to graduate with us!” they exclaimed. “We’ve been together
through the years, and we can’t afford to have the line broken now!”
One half hour later, supported by them, I was placed in the carriage
and carried triumphantly to my room in the dormitory, where I was to
remain quiet and patient until evening, when I should go down to the
brick church for my diploma!
From the lofty height of my dormitory window I could look down on the
house-tops of the city and see the hazy hills far, far against the
distant sky-lines. I could also look down between the veil of elm
leaves and see the processions of visitors and the hurrying forms of my
classmates, as they passed over the tar walk, under the shady arch of
the trees towards the gymnasium, where a banquet was to be served in
honor of my class.
There was a clatter outside my door, and the classmate who had been
chosen to deliver the speech for us in the gymnasium appeared in my
doorway with a hearty,
“How do I look, Priddy?”
No groom ever did better with a frock coat, a white, flowered vest, a
brilliant tie, and neatly combed hair, and I told him so. He then left
me for the momentous occasion in which he was to figure after dinner,
when he would stand up at the head of all the tables, strike his pose,
and in his best manner--with an incidental throwing back of his frock
coat to display his grand white vest--give the felicitations, the
thanks, the hopes, and ideals of our class.
So I sat apart from the revelry of the day, with a beating, thankful
heart, waiting for the arrival of evening. After supper a student came
into the room, fitted me into the best collar that I had, fastened the
groomish, white silk tie skilfully about it, put the golden links into
my new cuffs, and then helped me insert myself into my new frock coat!
“There,” he cried, stroking the front of my coat and then standing
back for the effect, “I think you are ready to be escorted down to the
church by the missionary; she will meet you in the reception room. Good
luck to you, Priddy!”
I was so faint that I walked through the great congregation of visitors
and friends as through a blur. I took my seat in the front of the
church with my classmates and saw only the array of palms and flowers
on the communion table. I needed to marshal every ounce of nerve and
strength in order to get through the service without accident. A
terrible fear rushed into my heart, as my head kept whirling like a
top and leaving me exhausted, a fear that I should tumble from my seat
and spoil the exercises.
One after another of my classmates crowded past me, ascended to the
pulpit, and delivered his speech. Next my name on the program, and the
subject of the speech on which I never wrote, was a star, followed by
the note: “Excused on account of illness.”