38
The Story of My Childhood
crust; and no royal table has ever been so kingly as that where I presided alone over my own feast.
Of the succeeding years, six, seven
and eight, I recall little of note beyond
my studies, excepting a propensity I
indulged for writing verses, many of
which were preserved to amuse, others
to tease me for many years. Colonel
Stone had closed his series of
common schools, and opened a special
institution on "Oxford Plain,"
known as the "Oxford High School."
Its fame had spread for miles around,
and it was regarded as the Ultima Thule
for teachers, and in a manner
a stepping stone or opening door to
Harvard and Yale.
My brother Stephen had succeeded Col. Stone in the winter terms of the
