Page 86 - The Story of My Lif

winter with our friends, the Chamberlins in Wrentham, twenty-five miles from

Boston.

From February to July, 1898, Mr. Keith came out to Wrentham twice a week,
and taught me algebra, geometry, Greek and Latin. Miss Sullivan interpreted his
instruction.

In October, 1898, we returned to Boston. For eight months Mr.

Keith gave me lessons five times a week, in periods of about an hour. He
explained each time what I did not understand in the previous lesson, assigned
new work, and took home with him the Greek exercises which I had written
during the week on my typewriter, corrected them fully, and returned them to
me.

In this way my preparation for college went on without interruption. I found it
much easier and pleasanter to be taught by myself than to receive instruction in
class. There was no hurry, no confusion. My tutor had plenty of time to explain
what I did not understand, so I got on faster and did better work than I ever did
in school. I still found more difficulty in mastering problems in mathematics
than I did in any other of my studies. I wish algebra and geometry had been half
as easy as the languages and literature. But even mathematics Mr. Keith made

interesting; he succeeded in whittling problems small enough to get through my
brain. He kept my mind alert and eager, and trained it to reason clearly, and to
seek conclusions calmly and logically, instead of jumping wildly into space and
arriving nowhere. He was always gentle and forbearing, no matter how dull I
might be, and believe me, my stupidity would often have exhausted the patience
of Job.

On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, I took my final examinations for Radcliffe
College. The first day I had Elementary Greek and Advanced Latin, and the
second day Geometry, Algebra and Advanced Greek.