I was nineteen before I could read the signs over shops, or write my own name.

Between nineteen and twenty I got all the education I ever was to have, paying a man with what I could save out of my earnings.

The blessing was I had health and strength, and with hard struggling I got into a regular employment.

At five-and-twenty I could earn my pound a week, pretty certain.

When it got to five shillings more, I must needs have a wife to share it with me.