nger belief in the "spare the rod and spoil the child" doctrine.
At least, this was my candid, unprejudiced belief during those stormy
days. Why, I had become so accustomed to receiving my daily
chastisement, as to feel that the day had been broken, or something
unusual had happened, should I by chance miss a day.

The principle difficulty was, that I had inherited a high-strung,
passionate temper from my mother, and a strong self-will from my father,
which made a combination hard to subdue. In my later days I have come to
realize that I must have tantalized and pestered my mother beyond all
reason, and too often, no doubt, at times when her life was harassed,
and her patience severely tried by the misconduct of one or more of her
step-children, who, by the way, I never thought were blessed with the
sweetest of all sweet tempers, themselves. At any rate, whenever I got
on the war path, I seldom experienced any serious difficulty in finding
some one of the family to accommodate me. Notwithstanding, I usually
"trimmed" them, as I used to term it, to my entire satisfaction, and no
matter whether they, or I were to blame, it was no trouble for them to
satisfy my mother that I was the guilty one, despite my efforts to prove
an "alibi." For this I was sure to be punished, as I was also for every
fight I got into with the neighbor boys, whose great stronghold was to
twit me of being "lazy and red-headed."

I was, however, successful at last in convincing my mother that those
lads whom I was frequently fighting and quarreling with, were taking
every advantage of her action in flogging me every time I had difficulty
with them. They could readily see and understand that I was more afraid
of the "home rule" than I was of them, and would lose no opportunity to
say and do things to provoke me.

One day I came home from school at recess in the afternoon, all out of
sorts, and greatly incensed at one of the boys who was two years older
than myself, and who had been, as I thought, imposing upon me. I met Mr.
Keefer at the barn, and declared right _there and then_ that I would
never attend school another day, unless I could receive my parents' full
and free consent to protect myself, and to go out and fight that fellow
as he passed by from school that evening.

"Do you think you can get satisfaction?" he asked.

"I am sure I can," I answered.

"Well, then," he said, "I want you to go out and flog him good this
evening, and I'll go