* * * * *
It put a singing in my heart to find myself at last a student in a
regular preparatory school, with my face set toward college.
I had passed my examinations with credit, especially the one in the
Bible. This won me immediate notice and approval among the professors.
Fortunate, indeed, I now regarded those three months in jail ... the
most fruitful and corrective period of my life. For not only had I
studied the Bible assiduously there, but I had learned American
history--especially that of the Civil War period ... and I had studied
arithmetic and algebra, so that in these subjects I managed to slide
through.
* * * * *
I was put to cleaning stalls and currying horses for my two hours' work
each day. Though I hated manual labour, I bent my back to the tasks with
a will, glad to endure for the fulfillment of my dream.
That first summer I took Vergil and began Homer. I had studied these
poets by myself already, but found many slack ends that only the aid and
guidance of a professor could clear up. And, allowing for their narrow
religious viewpoints, real or affected, in order to hold their
positions, they were fine teachers--my teachers of Latin and Greek--with
real fire in them.... Professor Lang made Homer and his days live for
us. The old Greek warriors rose up from the dust, and I could see the
shining of their armour, hear the clash of their swords.
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