Similar lists were on the wall over the oil-stove, and they were similarly conned while he was engaged in cooking or in washing the dishes.

New lists continually displaced the old ones.

Every strange or partly familiar word encountered in his reading was immediately jotted down, and later, when a sufficient number had been accumulated, were typed and pinned to the wall or looking-glass.

He even carried them in his pockets, and reviewed them at odd moments on the street, or while waiting in butcher shop or grocery to be served.
He went farther in the matter.

Reading the works of men who had arrived, he noted every result achieved by them, and worked out the tricks by which they had been achieved--the tricks of narrative, of exposition, of style, the points of view, the contrasts, the epigrams; and of all these he made lists for study.