As for me I did not know how to slide, and, besides, sports such as the other boys indulged in, I considered highly undignified.

I was always escorted to and from school very sedately, and I felt the humiliation of being conducted.

I was sometimes laughed at by my school-mates with whom I was not at all popular; and I had a disdain for those who, like myself, were in bondage.

I had scarcely an idea in common with them.
Even Thursdays I had to give to the preparation of lessons that took the entire day.

The written tasks, absurd exercises, I scrawled off in the most careless and illegible handwriting.
And my disgust for life was so great that I no longer took the least bit of pains with myself; often now I was scolded for looking so unkempt, and for having dirty, ink-stained hands.