In my childhood I suffered from ill-health.

My parents let me play about in the open air, and did not put me to school until I had turned my sixth year.

One day, playing in the shoemaker's shop, William Farrel asked me if I knew my letters.

I answered 'No.' He then took down a primer from a shelf, and began to teach me the alphabet, at the same time amusing me by likening the letters to familiar objects in his shop.

I soon learned to read, and in about six weeks I surprised my father by reading from an easy book which the shoemaker had given me.
"My father then took me into the school, of which he was master, and my education may be said fairly to have begun.