Think of studying in the pulpit when the creek ran high, and the wild birds sang so sweetly you seemed to hear them for the first time in all your life, and hens, guineas, and turkeys made prime music in the orchard.

You could see the buds swell, and the little blue flags push through the grass, where Mrs.Mayer had her flowerbed, and the cowslips greening under the water of the swale at the foot of the hill, while there might be a Fairy under any leaf.

I was so full, so swelled up and excited, that when I got ready to pick up a book, I could learn a lesson in a few minutes, tell all about it, spell every word, and read it back, front, and sideways.

I never learned lessons so quick and so easy in all my life; father, Laddie, and every one of them had to say so.

One night, father said to Laddie: "This child is furnishing evidence that our school system is wrong, and our methods of teaching far from right." "Or is it merely proof that she is different," said Laddie, "and you can't run her through the same groove you could the rest of us ?" "A little of both," said father, "but most that the system is wrong.
We are not going at children in a way to gain and hold their interest, and make them love their work.