CHAPTER II 



SCHOOL AND EARLY DAYS 



LIVING in modern times with all the attractions 

 that quick speed can give us, I sometimes fancy 

 we are very prone to think that school and learning 

 ends at the age of 15 or 16, instead of at three-score 

 years and ten. Having this thought in my mind 

 I will touch very lightly on early schooldays. 

 They were, after all, of a very normal and limited 

 character, and therefore will be of very little 

 interest except to a few. 



Studies were started in Hampshire by attending 

 a day-school at the village of Overton, a distance 

 of three to four miles. For two years my eldest 

 sister and I took this journey daily in a pony and 

 tub. Occasionally I did the journey by myself 

 and this necessitated the pony being ridden, a 

 job which was not altogether to my liking, for the 

 old pony very well knew that she could pop me 

 off just when she liked, particularly on the way 

 out ; coming home nothing ever happened. Those 

 who ride horses will very well know why this is so. 

 I would explain it like this. When you ride a 

 horse away from his stable, he has his eye on you 

 and is watching your every movement. When 



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