My Boyhood and Youth 



shameful job, father took me into the cabin 

 where the storm was to fall, and sent David 

 to the woods for a switch. While he was out 

 selecting the switch, father put in the spare 

 time sketching my play-wickedness in awful 

 colors, and of course referred again and again 

 to the place prepared for bad boys. In the 

 midst of this terrible word-storm, dreading 

 most the impending thrashing, I whimpered 

 that I was only playing because I could n't 

 help it; didn't know I was doing wrong; 

 would n't do it again, and so forth. After this 

 miserable dialogue was about exhausted, father 

 became impatient at my brother for taking so 

 long to find the switch; and so was I, for I 

 wanted to have the thing over and done with. 

 At last, in came David, a picture of open- 

 hearted innocence, solemnly dragging a young 

 bur-oak sapling, and handed the end of it to 

 father, saying it was the best switch he could 

 find. It was an awfully heavy one, about two 

 and a half inches thick at the butt and ten feet 

 long, almost big enough for a fence-pole. There 

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