“When I was about 9 years old I went to a day school and began to have a better time.  From 9 to 13 I practically shaped my own life.  I learned very little at school, and openly hated it, but I read a great deal at home and got plenty of ideas.  I lived, however, mainly out of doors whenever I could get out.  I spent all my pocket money on tools, rabbits, pigeons and many other animals.  I became an ardent pigeon-catcher, not to say thief, though I did not knowingly steal.

“My brothers were as devoted to the animals as I was.  The men were supposed to look after them, but we alone did so.  We observed, mated, separated, and bred them with considerable skill.  We had no language to express ourselves, but one of our own.  We were absolutely innocent, and sweetly sympathetic with every beast.  I don’t think we ever connected their affairs with those of human beings, but as I do not remember the time when I did not know all about the actual facts of sex and reproduction, I presume I learned it all in that way, and life never had any surprises for me in that direction.  Though I saw many sights that a child should not have seen, while running about wild, I never gave them a thought; all animals great and small from rabbits to men had the same customs, all natural and right.  My initiation here was, in my eyes, as nearly perfect as a child’s should be.  I never asked grown people questions.  I thought all those in charge of me coarse and untruthful and I disliked all ugly things and suggestions.

“Every half-holiday I went out with the boys from my brothers’ school.  They always liked me to play with them, and, though not pleasant-tongued boys, were always civil and polite to me.  I organized games and fortifications that they would never have imagined for themselves, led storming parties, and instituted some rather dangerous games of a fighting kind.  I taught my brothers; to throw stones.  Sometimes I led adventures such as breaking into empty houses.  I liked being out after dark.

“In the winter I made and rigged boats and went sailing them, and I went rafting and pole-leaping.  I became a very good jumper and climber, could go up a rope, bowl overhand, throw like a boy, and whistle three different ways.  I collected beetles and butterflies and went shrimping and learned to fish.  I had very little money to spend, but I picked things up and I made all traps, nets, cages, etc., myself.  I learned from every working-man, I could get hold of the use of all ordinary carpenters’ tools, and how to weld hot iron, pave, lay bricks and turf, and so on.

“When I was about 11 my parents got more mortified at my behavior and perpetually threatened me with a boarding-school.  I was told for months how it would take the nonsense out of