The sect, also known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, originally practiced celibacy and lived communally; but later became known simply for their plain-spoken, hardworking habits and simple, but well-crafted furniture. As a youngster, Peck fell under the influence of an inspiring teacher. As the author recalled in an essay for
Something about the Authors Autobiography Series (
SAAS), "Her name was Miss Kelly, and she taught first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth in a tumble-down, one-room, dirt-road school in rural Vermont. She believed in scholarship, manners, and soap. But more, she believed in
me. In all of us, telling us that in America you don't have to be what you're born. Haven Peck, my father, killed hogs for a living. Hard work, but he was a harder man. Like all hard men, he was kind, quiet, and gentle. I wanted to be like Papa, yet I wasn't sure I'd grow up only to kill hogs. "'Robert,' said Miss Kelly, 'perhaps you'll surprise us all, and amount to something.'
"It was years later when somebody pointed to a large building and said, 'That's a library.' I didn't believe it," Peck commented in SAAS, "because in Miss Kelly's little one-room school, we all knew what a library was.
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