“That was the turning-point in my life. On one side was the certainty
of one hundred and twenty dollars a year, and the prospect of promotion
as fast as I deserved it. Remember what one hundred and twenty
dollars meant in Prince Edward’s Island, and to me, a poor boy who
had never possessed such a sum in his life. On the other side was my
hope of obtaining an education. I knew that it involved hard work and
self-denial, and there was the possibility of failure in the end. But
my mind was made up. I would not turn back. I need not say that I do
not regret that early decision, although I think that I would have made
a successful storekeeper.
“With my eighty dollars capital, I began to attend the village high
school, to get my preparation for college. I had only one year to do
it in. My money would not last longer than that. I recited in Latin,
Greek and algebra, all on the same day, and for the next forty weeks
studied harder than I ever had before or have since. At the end of the
year I entered the competitive examination for a scholarship in Prince
of Wales College, at Charlotte Town, on the Island. I had small hope
of winning it, my preparation had been so hasty and incomplete. But
when the result was announced, I found that I had not only won the
scholarship from my county, but stood first of all the competitors on
the Island.
“The scholarship I had won amounted to only sixty dollars a year. It
seems little enough, but I can say now, after nearly thirty years, that
the winning of it was the greatest success I have ever had. I have had
other rewards, which, to most persons, would seem immeasurably greater,
but with this difference: that first success was essential; without it
I could not have gone on. The others I could have done without, if it
had been necessary.”
For two years young Schurman attended Prince of Wales College. He lived
on his scholarship and what he could earn by keeping books for one of
the town storekeepers, spending less than one hundred dollars during
the entire college year. Afterward, he taught a country school for a
year, and then went to Acadia College in Nova Scotia to complete his
college course.