I had very little benefit of my schooling; I was put back every time to the same place every winter being out every summer, on account of the poor time and circumstances my parents were in.

They were well pleased with my work where I was herding cows, but when I came back to school I again had to be punished for not being able to learn anything. Different times the teacher told me, “You are as ignorant as the child born last night.” They were miserable days for me again that time.

When I was fifteen years old I was hired to another farmer where I could get more wages. I was herding cows. I had a name for each cow; I was herding them among the green fields. When one of them could try to go in the grain I called her name, and if it did not turn at once, I went after her with my whip, I had no dog. I had them trained pretty well. I could run fast, so I could punish every one of them, until they learned to obey me.

I now said good-bye to my first job, and in the spring I began my second job.