But he was not satisfied with this.

He learned to make baskets of reeds and sold them.

With the money he received, he and his father were able to keep from starving.
Among other things, he built a rolling chair, strong and comfortable, to take his old father out for an airing on bright, sunny days.
In the evening the Marionette studied by lamplight.

With some of the money he had earned, he bought himself a secondhand volume that had a few pages missing, and with that he learned to read in a very short time.

As far as writing was concerned, he used a long stick at one end of which he had whittled a long, fine point.