SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 67 



As the work of the four previous terms had been mainly such 

 as I had been accustomed to in the childhood home — it being 

 heavy timber and the clearings commenced about the time I 

 was born — I got little that was new or helpful, except as the 

 continued doing of any task makes one more expert in it. But 

 the work, experience, and observation which I had in the two 

 summer terms of 1859, which included the gathering, labeling, 

 and arranging of seeds, I have felt were of great advantage to 

 me, for which I have always been grateful. 



I have previously mentioned the "Fern Sem," a short name 

 for the Michigan Female Seminary, at Lansing in charge of the 

 Rogers Sisters. There was some visiting of the girls at their 

 college during the summer of 1858, possibly started and en- 

 couraged by the fact that Professor Tracy, in whose charge the 

 overseeing of the boys principally was, was in the habit of 

 visiting one of its teachers, to whom he was subsequently married, 

 as stated above. The mutual interest and visiting between the 

 two colleges were greatly increased in October, 1858, when the 

 M. A. C. boys were invited to a husking bee at the "Fern Sem." 

 A field of several acres of corn, as I remember, stood just east 

 of the buildings, now used for the School for the Blind. The 

 night was lighted by one of those brilliant harvest moons and 

 also by the smiling faces of the "Fern Sem" students who acted 

 as partners in the husking. The number of red ears found was 

 quite remarkable, in fact so many and so well scattered over the 

 field were they, that they occasioned a good deal of querying, 

 some declaring that the planter must have had foreknowledge 

 as to the future huskers. When the corn was all husked and 

 picked up, and the stalks bound and set up, we were treated 

 to a bountiful lunch and then to a jolly social time, not soon to 

 be forgotten. We were allowed to linger into the small hours, 

 probably on account of the good work done. 



In passing, I cannot help remarking that this was more than 

 a pleasant event to the boys and girls for an evening; it was an 



