CHAPTER XV 



Schools op the Three ''R's" 



I remember, I remember, the log school by the Creek, 



Where first we got book rarnin'. There was me an' Tom an' Dick. 



An' Mary Jones an' Nancy, and Old Si Thomson's gal, 



An' the dominie, but nowadays they call him principal. 



I remember, I remember, all about those blue-beech switches. 

 An' how that teacher, oftentimes, would dust our little breeches. 

 An' how I tangled hopelessly in the long division rule, 

 An' wore the cap that told the class I was something of a fool. 



"l^rOULD that I had a magic pen that I might 

 ' ' produce a ''living likeness" of the country 

 school and the group of happy girls and boys that 

 once I knew. 



If it were only twenty years ago, but ah me, 

 it's forty, and many of those cheery faces have 

 vanished quite. 



I have a feeling akin to the poet who wrote : 



"... Have you seen those girls and boys 

 That but a little while ago, made oh, such pleasant 



noise, 

 O, trees and hills, and brooks, and lanes, and meadows, 



do you know 

 Where I shall find my little friends of forty years 



ago? 

 You see I'm old and weary, and I've travelled long 



and far ; 

 I am looking for my playmates — I wonder where they 



are. ' ' 



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