One morning, teachers arrived to find the little country schoolhouse swallowed in flames. They dragged an unconscious little boy, who went to start the fire in the old-fashioned coal stove to heat, out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital. From his bed the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die -- which was for the best, really -- for the terrible fire had ruined the lower half of his body. But the brave boy didn't want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. When the deadly danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the     lower part of his body, it would almost    be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be in a wheelchair all lifetime with no use at all of his lower limbs  . Once more the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a disabled man. He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist    down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just hung there, all but lifeless. Ultimately he was released from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn't in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs  behind him. He worked his way to the white fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then he began dragging himself along the fence,resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted    more than to develop life in those legs. Ultimately through his   daily massages, his     iron    persistence and     his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk slowly, then to walk   by himself -- and then to run. He began to walk    to school, then to run   to school, to run for the  pure joy of running. Later in college he made the track team. Still later in   Madison Square  Garden this young man, the great athlete, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile! Glenn got seriously burned   _  .
when he was playing near the stove when he went to set fire to the schoolhouse when he was probably younger than ten when his teachers were lighting the fire