in life, he gets credit at least for the virtue; but when a man is
a--is--well, one of liberal views, and breaks down, somehow or other
people don't credit him with even the intelligence he has put into the
business. This I call hard. If I did not recall with satisfaction the
energy and skill with which I did my work, I should be nothing but
disgusted at the melancholy spectacle of my failure. I suppose that
I shall at least find occupation in reviewing all this, and I
think, therefore, for my own satisfaction, I shall try to amuse my
convalescence by writing a plain, straightforward account of the life I
have led, and the various devices by which I have sought to get my share
of the money of my countrymen. It does appear to me that I have had no
end of bad luck.

As no one will ever see these pages, I find it pleasant to recall for my
own satisfaction the fact that I am really a very remarkable man. I
am, or rather I was, very good-looking, five feet eleven, with a lot
of curly red hair, and blue eyes. I am left-handed, which is another
unusual thing. My hands have often been noticed. I get them from my
mother, who was a Fishbourne, and a lady. As for my father, he was
rather common. He was a little man, red and round like an apple, but
very strong, for a reason I shall come to presently. The family must
have had a pious liking for Bible names, because he was called Zebulon,
my sister Peninnah, and I Ezra, which is not a name for a gentleman. At
one time I thought of changing it, but I got over it by signing myself
"E. Sanderaft."

Where my father was born I do not know, except that it was somewhere in
New Jersey, for I remember that he was once angry because a man called
him a Jersey Spaniard. I am not much concerned to write about my people,
because I soon got above their level; and as to my mother, she died when