81. From Childhood to College
BY SAMUEL KNEELAND (ABOUT 1750)
THE most remarkable thing in my childhood was a wonderful talent which
I possessed to imitate anything that I saw or heard. I could grunt like
a hog, roar like a lion, or bellow like a bull. I was once very near
being worried by a pack of rascally dogs, who took me for a fox, I
deceived their ears with so natural a squeal. I was a particular
favorite of all the hens in the neighborhood; I rivalled the cock with a
crow as exquisite as it was inimitable. I will add for the satisfaction
of my enemies, that when I hoot they would infallibly take me for an
owl. Also on occasion, I can bray so very advantageously, that few
donkeys can go beyond me.
Nay, to such a perfection am I now arrived in the art of
mimicry, that I am able not only to make any sound that I
hear, but I have a faculty of looking like anybody I think fit.
There is no person whom I have ever seen, but I can
immediately throw all his features into my face, assume his
air and monopolize his whole countenance. I remember when
I was a school-boy my master once gave me an unlucky rap
on my pate, for a fault committed by Giles Horror, whose
visage I had at that time most unfortunately put on. Esau
Absent may remember to this day, if he is living, how his
mother took me for him, when I marched off in triumph, with
a huge lunch of bread and butter, that was just spread for
Esau's dinner.
When I was three years old, I was sent to school to a mistress,
where I learned to read with great dispatch; in my fifth year, I was
taken away and put to
a writing master. In my seventh year I could flourish a
tolerable hand, and began my grammar. By the time that I
was fourteen, I was considerably proficient in the Latin and
Greek languages. and was admitted into Harvard College.
