62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



room, while I had to sit on the soft side of an oak 

 slab, in front of that stove as hot as the lower 

 regions, with my feet at least four inches from the 

 floor. In summer time my legs served as roosts 

 for flies while I was planning how to catch that 

 chipmunk which had his hole just six panels from 

 the bars which opened into the cow pasture. No 

 wonder I was regarded as the intellectual black- 

 sheep of our family ! 



The details of my early school life will scarcely 

 interest you since my studies did not interest me, 

 but all nine of the children in our family were 

 successful teachers at one time or another, and 

 notwithstanding I was the slow one, I also made 

 the " riffle " at last This exceptional interest in 

 education may be attributed to my mother's ambi- 

 tion. I once heard her say: " I received a better 

 education than my parents did, and come what 

 may, I am determined to give my children a better 

 education than I have." And because she worked 

 and saved and sacrificed to make her words come 

 true, I have striven to do the same for the next 

 generation. 



When I was about fourteen years old I had to 

 go back into the summer school because I had 

 fallen behind having become, as they said, too 

 fond of the lake and the woods and the chipmunks. 



