ousers suffered when
they sat on the new pine benches, which exuded rosin, but I had an
advantage of them in this respect, for I wore only a shirt. In fact, I
never wore trousers until I got to be so large that the white neighbors
complained of my insufficient clothes.

At the end of the first school year there was a trying time in our
family. On this occasion the teacher ordered all the pupils to appear
dressed in white. We had no white clothes, nor many of any other sort,
for that matter. Father and mother discussed our predicament nearly all
one night. Father said it was foolish to buy clothes which could be used
for that occasion only. But my ever resourceful mother was still
determined that her children should look as well on this important
occasion as any of our neighbors. However, when we went to bed the night
before the exhibition we still had no white clothes and no cloth from
which to make them. Nevertheless, when we awoke the next morning, all
three of us had beautiful white suits.

It came about in this way. My mother had a beautiful white Sunday
petticoat, which she had cut up and made into suits for us. As there is
just so much cloth in a petticoat and no more, the stuff had to be cut
close to cover all of us children, and as the petticoat had been worn
several times and was, therefore, likely to tear, we had to be very
careful how we stooped in moving about the stage, lest there should be a
general splitting and tearing, with consequences that we were afraid to
imagine. At the exhibitions the next night we said our little pieces,
and I suppose we looked about as well as the others; at least we thought
so, and that was sufficient. One thing I am sure of,--there was no
mother there who was prouder of her children than ours. The thing that
made her so pleased was the fact that my speech made such an impression
that our white landlord lifted me off the stage when I had finished
speaking and gave me a quarter of a dollar.

If there happened to be a school in the winter time, I had sometimes to
go bare-footed and always with scant clothing. Our landlady was very
kind in such cases. She would give me clothes that had already been worn
by her sons, and in turn I would bring broom straw from the sedges, with
which she made her brooms. In this way I usually got enough clothes to
keep me warm.

[Illustration]

So, with my mother's encouragement, I went to school in spite of my bare
feet. Often the ground would