Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

[28] of the little Baptist Church. Up to that time, what little instruction the boy had received had probably been obtained at the primary or writing school opposite the Farnhams', in School Street; and he had not shown himself an apt scholar, being slow in mastering the alphabet, and surpassed even by his little sister Elizabeth. He finally learned to spell, read, and write correctly, though the last accomplishment was acquired with no slight pains, for he was left-handed, and his master promptly checked his propensity to write accordingly, by a rap over the knuckles with his ruler. The treatment was radical, and the result a clear, round, handsome chirography, which was exhibited in the banks and countingrooms of the town as a model, and which always retained its character and beauty.

After he became an inmate of the Bartlett household he was sent to the Grammar School on the Mall, for three months, at the end of which he was compelled to leave, and do what he could towards earning his board by helping Deacon Bartlett. The good Deacon, who was in very humble circumstances, sawed wood, sharpened saws, made lasts, and even sold apples from a little stand at his door, to win a subsistence for his family; and Lloyd, who was an exemplary and conscientious boy, and warmly attached to his kind friends, dutifully tried to do all he could to lighten their burden of poverty. There were times, however, when he wished that he did not have to follow the Deacon about to help him saw and split wood, and would much rather have gone off to play with other boys; and once, when aggrieved by the denial of some privilege which he had asked of the Deacon, he ran away with an enterprising comrade, and was met twenty miles from town by the driver of the mail-coach, who picked up the fugitives and brought them back.

Lloyd was a thorough boy, fond of games and of all boyish sports. Barefooted, he trundled his hoop all over Newburyport; he swam in the Merrimac in summer, and skated on it in winter; he was good at sculling a boat;