102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



the door on the inside, thus shutting out the teacher, 

 who would go up the street and return with a 

 school trustee. By the time they reached the 

 schoolhouse the door would be standing open and 

 all the pupils would be playing in the yard at the 

 back. When I was asked by one of the boys what 

 I would do if I were barred out, I replied 

 promptly, that I would batter down that door with 

 a stick of stove wood and then there would be 

 doings inside. By such bold front and by virtue 

 of good fortune I gained a reputation of being able 

 to govern hard schools where better men than I 

 had failed. 



From a letter written to me in recent years by a 

 man who visited my school, I extract the following 

 comments : 



" Your autobiography is especially interesting to 

 me because I remember so many incidents of your 

 youthful days. Among them is one of the winter you 

 taught school at Beerytown where the pupils ranged 

 from sixty to seventy in number. J. N. B. and 

 myself, who were then about twelve years old, made 

 you a visit. When the school was out at noon you 

 took us to dinner with you at the hotel where you 

 boarded and one thing that made a deep impression 

 on my mind was the beefsteak they had on the table 

 such a lot of it, great thick slices and so much more 

 than I had ever been used to seeing on the table at 

 one time. The boys in school were great big, rough 

 town boys, but you maintained good order and as I 



