I Begin Life I began life, and that after no pleasant fashion, as near as I can guess, about the age of six years.

One glorious morning in early summer I found myself led by the ungentle hand of Mrs.Mitchell towards a little school on the outside of the village, kept by an old woman called Mrs.Shand.In an English village I think she would have been called Dame Shand: we called her Luckie Shand.

Half dragged along the road by Mrs.Mitchell, from whose rough grasp I attempted in vain to extricate my hand, I looked around at the shining fields and up at the blue sky, where a lark was singing as if he had just found out that he could sing, with something like the despair of a man going to the gallows and bidding farewell to the world.

We had to cross a little stream, and when we reached the middle of the foot-bridge, I tugged yet again at my imprisoned hand, with a half-formed intention of throwing myself into the brook.

But my efforts were still unavailing.