Even when I arose to recite before the customary audience of my class I suffered from incipient stage fright, and my voice trembled over the first few words.

When visitors were in the room I was even more troubled; and when I was made the special object of their attention my triumph was marred by acute distress.

If I was called up to speak to the visitors, forty pairs of eyes pricked me in the back as I went.

I stumbled in the aisle, and knocked down things that were not at all in my way; and my awkwardness increasing my embarrassment I would gladly have changed places with Lizzie or the bad boy in the back row; anything, only to be less conspicuous.

When I found myself shaking hands with an august School-Committeeman, or a teacher from New York, the remnants of my self-possession vanished in awe; and it was in a very husky voice that I repeated, as I was asked, my name, lineage, and personal history.