When I started first grade at Cuthand School, I took my reader home every night, and with Annie’s help, read several lessons ahead. I’d always longed to read, but by now had another incentive, although a secret one. The inside toilet walls at the school were covered with hundreds of words and sentences, all tantalizing out of my illiterate reach. Inscribed in pencil or or crayon, they were a foreign language to me. The big girls would gather to read them and giggle, so I knew I was missing something wonderful. I’d never have had the courage to ask the big girls to read them to me, but Sarah Nell did. They only looked at each other, raised their eyebrows and laughed harder. I wanted desperately to leave my mark on the world and write on the wall, too, but had the intuitive feeling that “See Dick run” and “Go Jane go” just would not satisfy. It was many months before I was able to painstakingly able to coax my first shocking secret from that wall. Even as my reading improved, my comprehension left much to be desired, so I memorized, knowing my vocabulary would eventually increase. Needless to say, I was never tempted to tryout any of these words for Mama to clear up my confusion as I usually did.