The fact that my
flesh was soft and tender added to the pain. But I had no choice. I
had to wear the flax shirt or none; and had it been left to me to
choose, I should have chosen to wear no covering. . . .
Until I had grown to be quite a youth this single garment was all that
I wore. . . .
From the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything, I
recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read. I determined
when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life,
I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common
books and newspapers. Soon after we got settled in some manner in our
new cabin in West Virginia, I induced my mother to get hold of a book
for me. How or where she got it I do not know, but in some way she
procured an old copy of Webster's "blue-back" spelling-book, which
contained the alphabet, followed by such meaningless words as "ab,"
"ba," "ca," "da." I began at once to devour this book, and I think
that it was the first one I ever had in my hands. I had learned from
somebody that the way to begin to read was to learn the alphabet, so I
tried in all the ways I could think of to learn it--all of course
without a teacher, for I could find no one to teach me.
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