The greatness of Miss Schofield’s work consisted of converting men and women who could never develop into great singers and teachers into useful productive workers and making them to see beauty as well as profit in the humbler tasks.
The sad experience had with Isaac Kimberley as a teacher indicated to Miss Schofield the necessity for raising the standard of qualification for all applicants for teacher’s certificates, and with the cooperation of Mose Graham, a Negro, who could scarcely read or write but who had been made County School Commissioner by the Radical Party, then in complete control of the State and National Government, she undertook to do this, which proved a complete failure on account of the illiteracy of the Negro race and the reluctance with which competent white teachers from the North accepted the call from the South to join the ranks of the teaching profession.
Ephriam Daniels, a six months pupil of the Schofield School, where he acquired the art of reading fluently and writing legibly and also mastered the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, concluded that in staying on the farm and tilling the soil he was hiding his light under a bushel and therefore, committing a sin which the Bible commanded him not commit, so he made application to Mose for a certificate to engage in the noble calling of teaching.
“Mr. Commissioner Graham,” said Ephriam, “I’se a wastin’ muh tallents behin’ de plow handles, as I is a mi’ty smart man ef I is a nigger, and so I haf com ter see yo’ ’bout gitten one o’ dem licenses to teach chillen wid. Wi’l yo’ gib muh one?”
Mose explained in detail and in a very perfunctory manner the difficulties of the teacher and discoursed considerably on the small compensation paid them. But encouraged his friend, however, by saying that the harvest was great and the laborers few, by which he meant that the office of County School Commissioner had a number of schools but no one to teach them.
“Don’t care ’bout difficultys and small pa’—dats what yo’ mean by—what did you call it?—com—something—commishion, I beleives. All I wants is ter teach. I’se going in der bizness fer de gud I kin do, not fer de muney.”
“Very good, indeed,” said Mose, “but befo’ I kin lisence yo’ ter teech I’se got to see Miss Marther Schofield and hab’ yo’ examed by her and me. Yo’ cum ter see me termorrow, ’bout ten o’clock.”
When Miss Schofield heard of the ambitions of Ephriam that afternoon her heart ran down in her shoes, both because of the impossibility which she knew existed of ever making a teacher of Ephriam and the equally impossible task of helping him to realize it. He was as stubborn as a mule in his ways and when he made up his mind to do anything he worked at it with all his poor brain till it either proved successful or fizzled out. It pained her to think of the neglect which she knew in her own mind had attended his crop throughout the spring season when it needed most attention, which she was well aware from the nature of Ephriam had been diverted to the subject of school teaching.
But on the insistance of Graham, in whose favor she had often to make some concessions, though none of any importance, she at some expense of time and dignity consented to meet him at his office at the appointed hour for the purpose of examining Ephriam Daniels for a certificate to teach in the free public schools.
Dressed in a soldier’s old uniform, which was secured from the remnants of Sherman’s Army as they passed through South Carolina; with a large bandana handkerchief around his neck for a collar and an old stove pipe hat which his old master, John Rutledge Daniels, had given him on the day of his freedom, Ephriam appeared before the examining board with a pocket full of pencils and a quire or two of ruled fools-cap paper.