I was very near-sighted, so that the only things I could study were those I ran against or stumbled over.
When I was about thirteen I was allowed to take lessons in taxidermy from a Mr.Bell, a tall, clean-shaven, white-haired old gentleman, as straight as an Indian, who had been a companion of Audubon's.

He had a musty little shop, somewhat on the order of Mr.Venus's shop in "Our Mutual Friend," a little shop in which he had done very valuable work for science.

This "vocational study," as I suppose it would be called by modern educators, spurred and directed my interest in collecting specimens for mounting and preservation.

It was this summer that I got my first gun, and it puzzled me to find that my companions seemed to see things to shoot at which I could not see at all.

One day they read aloud an advertisement in huge letters on a distant billboard, and I then realized that something was the matter, for not only was I unable to read the sign but I could not even see the letters.