smoking his corn-cob pipe; the slick and carpetless oak floor
faintly mirroring the flame tongues, and freckled with black
indentations where fire-coals had popped out and died a leisurely
death; half a dozen children romping in the background twilight;
splint-bottom chairs here and there--some with rockers; a cradle
--out of service, but waiting with confidence.

One is tempted to dwell on this period, to quote prodigally from these
vivid memories--the thousand minute impressions which the child's
sensitive mind acquired in that long-ago time and would reveal everywhere
in his work in the years to come. For him it was education of a more
valuable and lasting sort than any he would ever acquire from books.




IX

SCHOOL-DAYS

Nevertheless, on his return to Hannibal, it was decided that Little Sam
was now ready to go to school. He was about five years old, and the
months on the farm had left him wiry and lively, even if not very robust.
His mother declared that he gave her more trouble than all the other
children put together.

"He drives me crazy with his didoes, when he is in the house," she used
to say; "and when he is out of it I am expecting every minute that some
one will bring him home half dead."