And because she did not--most likely she deemed me unappreciative--I cried all the way home on the three-mile tramp from the school to the ranch.

I waited and yearned for her to lend me another book.

Scores of times I nerved myself almost to the point of asking her, but never quite reached the necessary pitch of effrontery.
And then came the city of Oakland, and on the shelves of that free library I discovered all the great world beyond the skyline.

Here were thousands of books as good as my four wonder-books, and some were even better.

Libraries were not concerned with children in those days, and I had strange adventures.