The Days of a Man 1868 



boys afterward burned an incident I pretended 

 not to notice. On the road, in the woods, whenever 

 relations were humanly personal, I always got along 

 finely with all kinds of students. But in my first 

 classroom a species of terrorism seemed to be de- 

 manded. I used sometimes to envy other young 

 men for their "executive ability," a quality which 

 I apparently did not then possess. Perhaps it 

 ripens slowly; for in my long experience as uni- 

 versity president it was usually thought to be one 

 of my strong points. 



Home In going over my early life I remember nothing 

 advan- wn } cn \ can fairly count as an obstacle. My mother 

 was intelligent, well-read, and sympathetic. My 

 father, as I have said, was proud of his children 

 and gave us what help he could afford sometimes 

 more; for until the latter part of his life he was 

 always more or less in debt and had no particular 

 skill in financial matters. From the age of fourteen 

 on, therefore, I myself carried the small family 

 purse and attended to all payments. It was good 

 training, but I must confess that on three occasions 

 I was an easy mark for the older heads with whom 

 I came into competition, each time in connection 

 with a deal in sheep. 



During my youth our lack of money did not 

 worry me, because I knew very few who had more, 

 and those few made little display of their wealth. 

 The farmers of the region were as a rule self-respect- 

 ing and fairly well off. Among the twenty or so 

 indigent families in our neighborhood, the obvious 



