The Merits of Meritocracy « Hotel Ivory

At age 20, I moved to another mansion as garden worker; my salary was 100kr a year plus meals and accommodation. I have no complaints about the salary, but the mansion-owner treated his staff as serfs. They were for example not even allowed to take a bath in the lake that surrounded his property. ... But my inclination was for studies, I learnt easily, and borrowed books where I could, but when my stepmother saw that I had a book she beat me and said she would burn them. ...