| The Life of Dr. J.R. Miller |
Chapter 1 |
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With his sisters James attended the district school in Hanover Township, where he learned the elements of a fair English education. That he was an eager student was testified by an early teacher, Wallace Wilson, who died only a few months before his pupil of those early days. He said it was always a pleasure to teach James Russell Miller, and he took particular delight in telling of the ambitious student’s request that algebra might be added to the curriculum. The teacher frankly confessed that he knew nothing of the subject, and propose that both should study it together. The old man’s eyes kindled as he recounted the success of that winter. With the unassuming spirit for which he always was noted, his pupil aide him in understanding the new branch of learning.
When James was about fourteen years old, his father moved to a farm near Calcutta, Ohio. In the new home James was popular among his schoolmates, as he had been in his Pennsylvania home. The young people of the neighbourhood delighted to gather at the Miller fireside to enjoy one of the evenings of good fellowship for which the household was noted. It is easy to understand this when the lovable James had lively sisters, one of whom he described in fascinating manner is a letter to a friends, written years after he went out into the world:
“Your letters always remind me of a little sister at home whose wicked pranks are never to be forgotten, and whose letters always come filled with little bits and wit and sarcasm. She delighted always in teasing me when I was at home, in continually playing tricks with my letters, hiding my books and papers, and otherwise endlessly annoying me – but always with such good humour, and with such a quiet, innocent air, that, no matter how evil disposed, I could not for the world get angry with her. However, she knows very well that her big brother is very good natured and never apt to grow angry, and, moreover, that he enjoys teasing quite as well as she does. She is a good girl, and next to my mother the dearest on earth to me. I like spirit and have a particular fondness for a style of intercourse which some very punctilious and exact people call impudence.”
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