Page 65: Excerpt from A Nickel and a Prayer
had been too busy and too happy to see. One morning when I had been at Dixie for one year, the Superintendent sent for me and said that my services were no longer required. My pride was severely hurt, but my conscience was clear. Although I was well aware, through petty persecutions, of the head nurse’s dislike and jealousy of my popularity with the student body, I was innocent of any infraction of rules or dereliction of duty. I made up my mind, then and there, that if I ever became superintendent of an institution, I would never dismiss a student without first satisfying myself that there was a cause for the dismissal, and without explaining it to the student.
Bitterly as I resented this injustice, I have never held Hampton Institute responsible for the wrong.
Dismissed and disgraced, but with undaunted courage and full confidence in myself, I turned my thoughts toward Florida, where I intended to practice my profession.
En route I stopped at Richmond, Virginia, to visit with Mr. and Mrs. William Coleman, friends of Uncle Parris. They were at church when I arrived; so I sat on the doorstep to await their return. After these good friends had greeted me, Mrs. Coleman said, “Our bags are packed to go to Cleveland, Jane. We are going to take you with us.”
I was swept off my feet by the cheerful determination of the Colemans. My trunk, not yet removed from the station, was rechecked to Cleveland.
(<<<previous)
Hunter, Jane Edna. A Nickel and a Prayer. 2nd edition. Nashville: Elli Kani Publishing Co., 1941.
had been too busy and too happy to see. One morning when I had been at Dixie for one year, the Superintendent sent for me and said that my services were no longer required. My pride was severely hurt, but my conscience was clear. Although I was well aware, through petty persecutions, of the head nurse’s dislike and jealousy of my popularity with the student body, I was innocent of any infraction of rules or dereliction of duty. I made up my mind, then and there, that if I ever became superintendent of an institution, I would never dismiss a student without first satisfying myself that there was a cause for the dismissal, and without explaining it to the student.
Bitterly as I resented this injustice, I have never held Hampton Institute responsible for the wrong.
Dismissed and disgraced, but with undaunted courage and full confidence in myself, I turned my thoughts toward Florida, where I intended to practice my profession.
En route I stopped at Richmond, Virginia, to visit with Mr. and Mrs. William Coleman, friends of Uncle Parris. They were at church when I arrived; so I sat on the doorstep to await their return. After these good friends had greeted me, Mrs. Coleman said, “Our bags are packed to go to Cleveland, Jane. We are going to take you with us.”
I was swept off my feet by the cheerful determination of the Colemans. My trunk, not yet removed from the station, was rechecked to Cleveland.
(<<<previous)
Hunter, Jane Edna. A Nickel and a Prayer. 2nd edition. Nashville: Elli Kani Publishing Co., 1941.
© 2009 Jane Edna Hunter Project
