night school," or "moonlight school". Before I relate the
history of that experiment, may I take you into my con-
fidence and relate the specific incidents, personal experi-
ences which enlightened me as to the necessity of providing
some educational facilities for adult mountaineers.
    Mollie McGlothin, a mountain woman, bent with age,
came into my office one morning, fondling a letter tenderly.
Her daughter had grown up and secured an education, had
gone to Chicago and engaged in business. Her letters were
the one bright spot in the old woman's existence, and the
drafts which they contained were often the only means of
relieving her present necessities. When a letter came, she
usually went to the home of some neighbor and engaged
their services to interpret its precious contents. Occasion-
ally she came to town, some seven miles, to enlist my ser-
vices, and I anticipated that such was her mission on this
occasion. "A letter from Jane!" I exclaimed. '"Shall I
read it for you, Mollie " Her face fairly beamed. "No,"
she replied, "I have learned to read and write, and am
going to answer it myself." "Learned to read and write!"
I exclaimed in astonishment. Why, only a month ago she
was ignorant of the significance of the slightest literary
character. I questioned her and drew from her this simple
story:  "Well, sometimes the neighbors were busy and
sometimes the cricks were up, and I got tired, anyway,
runnin' round botherin' the neighbors, and, then, I jist
wanted to read with my own eyes what Jane had writ with
her own hand, so I went to the store and got me a speller,
and I sot up till midnight at night, and sometimes till day-
light until I larned to spell and read and write." And to
verify the statement, she spelled out slowly the words of
her daughter's treasured missive; and then, under my di-
rection, she sat down and wrote her first letter, an achieve-
ment which delighted her beyond all expression, and which
must have delighted Jane more.
    A few months later a prepossessing mountain man of
middle age came into my office, and while waiting for me to
dispatch some other business fingered several books wist-
fully, turning them over and over again, and laying them
down at last with a sigh. Knowing the scarcity of inter-
esting books throughout the country, I inquired whether he
wished to take one home with him to read, and he replied
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