"He didn't look like one." "He isn't yet," said Martha.

"But he began all wrong.

Mother said that there was enough trouble and raging in th' house to set any child wrong.
They was afraid his back was weak an' they've always been takin' care of it--keepin' him lyin' down and not lettin' him walk.

Once they made him wear a brace but he fretted so he was downright ill.

Then a big doctor came to see him an' made them take it off.