The school board was not eager again to try putting him out by force, and it seemed that nothing less than the state militia could oust him from the schoolhouse; and that would need an order from the governor of the state! On the whole, public opinion rather favored his being allowed to pay his tuition and to go to school if he felt the need of it.
At any rate, he went to school there all winter and made remarkable progress.

In the course of ten weeks he could read slowly, and he knew most of the short words in his primer and second reader by sight.

Longer words he would not try to pronounce, but called them, each and all, "jackass" as fast as he came to them.
In consequence his reading aloud was highly ambiguous.

He could write his name slowly and with many grimaces.
Figures, for some reason, came much easier to him than the alphabet.

He learned the numerals in a few days, and by the fifth or sixth week of school he could add and subtract on his slate.