He did not accomplish it in a day, or in a week, or in a
month, or in a year; but slowly, very slowly, he learned after
he had grasped the possibilities which lay in those little bugs,
so that by the time he was fifteen he knew the various
combinations of letters which stood for every pictured figure
in the little primer and in one or two of the picture books.
Of the meaning and use of the articles and conjunctions, verbs
and adverbs and pronouns he had but the faintest conception.
One day when he was about twelve he found a number of
lead pencils in a hitherto undiscovered drawer beneath the
table, and in scratching upon the table top with one of them
he was delighted to discover the black line it left behind it.
He worked so assiduously with this new toy that the table
top was soon a mass of scrawly loops and irregular lines and
his pencil-point worn down to the wood. Then he took another
pencil, but this time he had a definite object in view.
He would attempt to reproduce some of the little bugs that
scrambled over the pages of his books.
It was a difficult task, for he held the pencil as one would
grasp the hilt of a dagger, which does not add greatly to ease
in writing or to the legibility of the results.
But he persevered for months, at such times as he was able
to come to the cabin, until at last by repeated experimenting
he found a position in which to hold the pencil that best
permitted him to guide and control it, so that at last he could
roughly reproduce any of the little bugs.
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