My Schooling 



white flower, which wears a narrow red collar 

 at the throat of its funnel. 



When we go to beat the walnut-trees, the 

 barren grass-plots provide me with Locusts 

 spreading their wings, some into a blue fan, 

 others into a red. And thus the rustic school, 

 even in the heart of winter, furnished continu- 

 ous food for my interest in things. There 

 was no need for precept and example : my pas- 

 sion for animals and plants made progress of 

 itself. 



What did not make progress was my ac- 

 quaintance with my letters, greatly neglected in 

 favour of the pigeon. I was still at the same 

 stage, hopelessly behindhand with the untract- 

 able alphabet, when my father, by a chance in- 

 spiration, brought me home from the town 

 what was destined to give me a start along the 

 road of reading. Despite the not insignificant 

 part which it played in my intellectual awaken- 

 ing, the purchase was by no means a ruinous 

 one. It was a large print, price six farthings, 

 coloured and divided into compartments in 

 which animals of all sorts taught the A. B.C. 

 by means of the first letters of their names. 



Where should I keep the precious picture? 

 As it happened, in the room set apart for the 

 children at home, there was a little window 



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