But, as I look back at the boys and girls who helped to make life
miserable for me in school, I feel for them only kindness. I bear
no malice. They did no more than their fathers and mothers, many
of them, would have done. They little realized what they were
doing. They had no intention to do me personal injury, though
there is no question in my mind but that they made my trouble
worse. They did not know how terribly they were punishing me. They
saw in my affliction only fun, while I saw in it--only misery.





CHAPTER II

MY FIRST ATTEMPT TO BE CURED


I can remember very clearly the positive fear which always
accompanied a visit to our friends or neighbors, or the advent of
visitors at my home. Many a time I did not have what I desired to
eat because I was afraid to ask for it. When I did ask, every eye
was turned on me, and the looks of the strangers, with now and
then a half-suppressed smile, worked me up to a nervous state that
was almost hysterical, causing me to stutter worse than at any
other time.

At one time--I do not remember what the occasion was--a number of
people had come to visit us. A large table had been set and loaded