EDUCATION 61 



Long writing tables were arranged around three 

 sides of the room against the wall. In front of 

 these were seats for the larger pupils and in front 

 of these seats were the backless benches for the 

 kids in those heathen days we called them 

 "trucklebed trash." These benches were made of 

 heavy oak slabs with four, straddling, pin-like legs, 

 and were placed just in front of the great ten-plate 

 heating stove. When it got too hot the little fel- 

 lows crowded to the end of the bench and not in- 

 frequently someone got shoved off onto the floor. 

 Then came the laugh and the reckoning "for 

 going to sleep and falling off the bench." The 

 boys caught me napping once and the teacher 

 awakened me by blistering the seat of my breeches. 

 After that I swung my feet against the big side 

 bench and braced; and discovered for the first time 

 what happens when an irresistible force meets an 

 immovable body the irresistible received just 

 punishment and the immovable escaped. Ever 

 since then I have known enough to brace when 

 things or men scrouge. 



I used to envy a big boy who had purloined a 

 broken-bottom Windsor chair from the kitchen at 

 home, and recovering it with a soft woolly sheep- 

 skin, had placed it in a cozy corner of the school 



