Autobiographical Passages 57 



fire one day in four, and to provide wood I had to cut and 

 split these logs, using a beetle and wedges for the larger ones; 

 then carry the wood to the school and up stairs — all in play- 

 time — make the fire before day and keep it up till bedtime. 

 I was eight years old and small of my age. 



The parsonage had a small back kitchen in which there 

 was a wooden sink; outside the door stood an open water 

 butt with a spigot at the bottom. After we had dressed by 

 lamplight in the morning and perhaps broken a path through 

 the snow to "the other house," we opened the back kitchen 

 door and in turn drew water in a cast-iron skillet about six 

 inches in diameter out of which with the aid of home-made 

 soft soap, held at a corner of the sink in a gourd, we washed 

 our hands and faces. A roller towel hung upon the wall for 

 the use of all the family. On Saturday night, hot water was 

 furnished us and we were expected to wash our ears, neck and 

 feet. Our meals were eaten in the kitchen and here, on the 

 bare floor, we twice a day kneeled in prayers. 



The parson's son, a weakly boy who afterwards died of 

 consumption, lived in the house with the family. The four 

 boarder boys had the "store" all to themselves except in 

 school hours. 



They were kept in order in this way : At irregular inter- 

 vals, when they were expected to be studying their lessons, 

 the parson came to the foot of the stairs, took off his shoes, 

 crept softly up and stood with his ear at the latch. If there 

 was no disorder, he slipped down again and we perhaps knew 

 nothing of his visit. If I was telling a story — my stories were 

 generally of "run-aways" — the parson waited until I reached 

 a situation of interest, when he would break in shouting 

 "Oh! the depravity of human nature!" and seizing a ruler, 

 a stick of firewood or a broom handle, go at us all pellmell 

 over the head and shoulders. 



A later biographical fragment, probably written in the 

 nineties, carries on the story of Mr. Olmsted's education. 



