The Mason-bees 



gendered by a well backing on It in the street 

 outside. For light there was the open door, 

 when the weather permitted, and a narrow 

 prison-window, with iron bars and lozenge 

 panes set in lead. By way of benches there 

 was a plank fastened to the wall all round the 

 room, while in the middle was a chair bereft 

 of its straw, a black-board and a stick of 

 chalk. 



Morning and evening, at the sound of the 

 bell, there came rushing in some fifty young 

 imps, who, having shown themselves hopeless 

 dunces with their Cornelius Nepos, had been 

 relegated, in the phrase of the day, to "a 

 few good years of French." Those who had 

 found mensa too much for them came to me 

 to get a smattering of grammar. Children 

 and strapping lads were there, mixed up to- 

 gether, at very different educational stages, 

 but all incorrigibly agreed to play tricks 

 upon the master, the boy master who was no 

 older than some of them, or even younger. 



To the little ones I gave their first lessons 

 in reading; the intermediate ones I showed 

 how they should hold their pen to write a 

 few lines of dictation on their knees; to the 

 big ones I revealed the secrets of fractions 



