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?

Wilmington is a city with a population of 25,000. It is estimated that
14,000 of this is colored. Business is increasing fast and population
is gaining proportionately. How what is the import of all this? Large
numbers of colored people will be attracted here. It will be an
objective point for educational work among them. If we already have
300 pupils, the opportunity will then be enlarged many fold. But even
now we need more help. Cannot the friends at home enter upon a course
of self-denial to extend us a little aid?