kon we'll have to make a school teacher of you." I
don't know why he should have called me lazy; I suppose it must have
been on account of my awkwardness. Lazy, why, I could sit all day and
fish in one place and not get a bite, while my more industrious
companions would, out of sheer exhaustion of patience, be compelled to
move about; and I hold that patience is the very perfection of industry.

In the belief that I could never amount to anything I gradually
approached my awkward manhood. I grew fast, and I admit that I was
always tired; and who is more weary than a sprout of a boy? My brothers
were active of body and quick of judgment, and I know that Ed, my oldest
brother, won the admiration of the neighborhood when he swapped horses
with a stranger and cheated him unmercifully. How my father did laugh,
and mother laughed, too, but she told Ed that he must never do such a
thing again. With what envy did I look upon this applause. I knew that
Ed's brain was no better than mine; and as I lay in bed one night I
formed a strong resolve and fondly hugged it unto myself. I owned a
horse, a good one; and I would swap him off for two horses--I would
cheat some one and thereby win the respect of my fellows. My secret was
sweet and I said nothing. By good chance a band of gypsies came our way;
I would swindle the rascals. I went to their camp, leading my horse, and
after much haggling, I came home with two horses. It was night when I
reached home, and I put my team into the stable, and barred up my secret
until the sun of a new day could fall upon it. Well, the next morning
one of the horses was dead, and the other one was so stiff that we had
to shove him out of the stall. My father snorted, my poor mother wept,
and for nights afterward I slipped out and slept in the barn, burrowed
under the hay that I might not hear the derisive titter of my brother
Ed.

We lived in northern Alabama, in a part of the country that boasted of
the refinement and intelligence of its society. When I was alone with
boys much younger than myself I could say smart things, and I had a hope
that when I should go into formal "company" I would, with one evening's
achievement, place myself high above the numbskulls who had giggled at
me. The time came. There was to be a "party" at the house of a neighbor,
and I was invited. I had a suit of new clothes, and after dressing
myself with exceeding care, I set out, strong of heart, for the field of
victory. Bu