together in Pratt's Pond."

About this time Pershing's father added to his other ventures the
purchase of a farm near Laclede, and the family moved out there. Then
there was indeed plenty of work to do. The chores often began before
sun-up, and lasted till after dark; and the children were lucky to find
time for schooling during the late Fall and Winter months. John,
however, kept doggedly at it, and managed to get a fair, common-school
education.

When he was barely in his 'teens, his first set task was given him--to
teach in a negro school. This school had been established after the
War ended, but the teacher had gone, and no one else seemed available
for the job. John was sober and studious, and besides was so well
grown for his age that they banked on his ability to "lick" any negro
boy that got obstreperous.

He succeeded sufficiently in this venture, to cause him to take up
teaching regularly, in white schools, with a view to paying for his
education. He wanted to study law, and his parents encouraged the
idea. His work in these country schools was invaluable to him in
teaching him how to govern others. A former pupil of his writes:

"Though he never sought a quarrel, young Pershing was known as 'a game
fighter,' who never acknowledged defeat. One day, at Prairie Mound, at
the noon hour a big farmer with red sideburns rode up to the
schoolhouse with a revolver in his hand. Pershing had whipped one of
the farmer's children, and the enraged parent intended to give the
young schoolmaster a flogging.

"I remember how he rode up cursing before all the children in the
schoolyard, and how another boy and I ran down a gully because we were
afraid. We peeked over the edge, though, and heard Pershing tell the
farmer to put up his gun, get down off his horse, and fight like a man.

"The farmer got down and John stripped off his coat. He was only a boy
of seventeen or eighteen and slender, but he thrashed the old farmer
soundly. And I have hated red sideburns ever since."

After several terms of country school teaching, young Pershing saved up
enough money to enter the State Normal School, at Kirksville, Mo. One
of his sisters went with him. He remained there for two terms, doing
his usual good steady work, but was still dissatisfied. He wanted to
get a better education.

About this time he happened to notice an announcement of a competitive
examination in his district for an entrance to West Point.