Biography

My father, though, could run very much faster. It was impossible to compete with him on the grass. But it was astonishing how slow old people were. Some of them could not run up a hill and called it trying to climb stairs.

It was jolly in the country. A cow and little pigs to play with and milk warm from the cow.

Being gifted needs courage.

Just about this time, when in imagination I was so great a warrior, I had good use in real life for more strength, as I was no longer taken to school by the nurse, but instead had myself to protect my brother, two years my junior.

I was a town child, it is true, but that did not prevent me enjoying open-air life, with plants and animals.