This vacation passed, others followed, and the years at school continued with great improvement, I think to myself and to the satisfaction of my teachers and above all to the great pleasure of my best friend, Mr. Percy. His letters seemed to have more breadth and to grow better as I grew older. He wrote me on all kinds of subjects. Each one of them was an incentive to study for I had to read up or think on the many things referred to in them. Frequently when the boys were at their games, and I dearly loved play, I felt in honor bound and from love to Mr. Percy that I must think over his letters and see what I could say in reply to them. Our library was nearly as empty as a church’s poor box and the few books in it were of little use for the reason that they were donated, and it often happens that benevolent people give away what is useless to themselves or anybody else. Whether the recording angel gives a credit mark for this kind of charity I have my doubts. I was thrown mostly on my own resources and had to think for myself, which probably was much better than if I had borrowed from somebody. I think this correspondence was the best part of my school education. The most of our school duties was to commit to memory and repeat continually rules and definitions, and we had so much of that to do that we had no time to think. The main object seemed to be, not to make us think and reason, but to pass our exams. What a thing this Government system is! and the men who concocted it. But I suppose we should have charity for them as they could not act otherwise than within the circumference of their own capacities.