Reference Library--Remember This One?

Jack London's first brush with alcohol or John Barleycorn, as it was called in the days when the problem was not faced as openly as it is now, came at an extraordinarily early age. He was a small boy of five years and he had been commissioned to carry a pail of beer from the house to a field where his father was plowing. It was a hot day, the pail was heavy and the little boy sought to lighten his task by drinking some of the beer. Once started, and in spite of a nauseous aversion to the taste of the drink, he continued to gulp it down until he had drunk all that he could hold.