Thomas Kinkade A Holiday Gathering painting

Thomas Kinkade A Holiday Gathering paintingJohn Collier Horace and Lydia paintingCaravaggio Boy with a Basket of Fruit painting
until one or another of the villagers showed up and taught them one thing or another. Most of it seemed to be language practice, by way of storytelling. The teacher would start a story and then a child would carry it on a way, and then another would pick it up, and so on, everybody listening very intently, alert, ready to take over. The subjects were just village doings, as far as I could tell, pretty dull stuff, but there were twists and jokes, and an unexpected or inventive usage or connection caused a lot of pleasure and praise—"A jewel!" they'd all say. Now and then a regular teacher would wander by, doing a round of the villages, and have a session for a day or two or three, and reading. Adolescents and some adults would come to hear the teacher, along with the children. That's how I learned to read a few characters in certain texts.
The villagers never tried to ask me about myself or where I came