Once in a corner near the fireplace, Uncle Ezra had been working industriously with a stub pencil and a piece of paper.

Suddenly he looked up and smiled.

He exclaimed, "Doggoned it Maw, if I ain't done learned to write."

Maw got up and looked over his shoulder at the lines scrawled across the paper. "What does it say?"

Uncle Ezra said, "I don't know, I ain't learned to read yet."