I only got a sight of the swimming-hole because I had brothers.
For the first time it occurred to a "shaver" to strip and duck me. My brothers were ashamed of my being a girl-boy and thought it would contribute toward making a man of me.
"Stop your screeching, Ralph! You've got to be stripped so we can see if you are a real boy! Stop your scratching, or we'll give you a black eye!....Now let's dip him under to stop his yelling!.... You can't come around the swimming-hole any more unless you get into the water with the rest of us!.... Cry-baby! Cry-baby! You're a hopeless case!....Clear out of here!"
I half-way dressed and ran off in terror. Their driving home the fact that I was a hopeless sexual cripple brought on such melancholia as I had never before experienced. I repeatedly blubbered out as I ran: "I want to die! I want to die!"
