First Day of School

Soon after that my pappa came home to stay. He rented farmland in the river bottom and half of Squire McIntosh's house, which was far nicer than our old home. It was two stories. We had a kitchen, dining room, sitting room with beds for my parents and the baby, and two large bedrooms upstairs for the other kids.

There was a second story porch all the way across, which came in real handy when Sadie came in from school with head lice. None of us could sleep together, so we all had private pallets on the proch for a while. My grandma came with her fine-toothed comb, and heads and hair were washed and combed a lot 'till all were louse and nit free.

This is when I decided to start to school. I was past six, but had not quite made up my mind to go yet. I went off to Paul's Chapel to Miss Bessie Amsley, the teacher. She made me very welcome that morning. This was not the beginning of the school year, so at noon time the other kids explained the little door under the stage was where all bad kids were put for punishment.

I took this very seriously and when the bell rang for the afternoon, I decided my headache was much too bad to stay in school. So, sure enough, I convinced Miss Bessie to send two kids to walk me home, which was several miles through fields, fences, and blackberry patches.

Well, that took care of school for a while. I never was made to go back there.