60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



stockings or socks and mittens for a score of 

 feet and legs, and as many hands. For many years 

 there was only one pair of hands to do all these 

 things, but the stockings were always symmetrically 

 narrowed down at the toe and heel and the thumbs 

 of the mittens fitted almost as perfectly as a mod- 

 ern glove. 



Like all the other children of the neighborhood 

 I was kept steadily in school both winter and sum- 

 mer until I was about twelve years of age; after 

 that I helped on the farm in summer and went to 

 school in winter. In our home there was always 

 a school atmosphere and in winter the great 

 kitchen was turned into an evening school-room, 

 the older children helping the younger ones in their 

 studies. Sometimes in the spring when the land 

 was not yet fit for tilling and my brothers 1 schools 

 were closed, the carpet was removed from the par- 

 lor and a cousin of ours a graduate of Yale 

 was employed to teach us all. This extra home 

 school continued for a month or more but it was 

 always closed as soon as the land was fit for the 

 plow. 



In the district school house which was located on 

 a stony hog-back and which has long since been 

 destroyed, I learned at least one valuable lesson. 



