Schools of the Three ''B's" 203 



that my clothing soaked up a good deal of that 

 river water — I was an inveterate wader as a small 

 boy, and the water of the Avon in those days was 

 not so full of sewage that it could not be soaked 

 up readily. 



BLXJE-BEECH GADS 



The school was a one-roomed building with a 

 windowless lobby across the front. A big box- 

 stove stood in an opening in the partition between 

 lobby and schoolroom, and a crazy and irregular 

 set of stove-pipes extended along the full length 

 of the ceiling. I recall that a number of boy 

 scholars were told off each day to carry in the 

 wood, similarly, certain of the girl scholars had 

 to remain after four o'clock to do the sweeping 

 and, thus, incidentally, had lessons in husbandry 

 and housekeeping. 



One promoter of school discipline kept a gen- 

 erous supply of black-birch and blue-beech gads 

 fastened to the wire by which the stove-pipes were 

 kept in place. He used to wear out the aforesaid 

 foliage, for what seemed to us youngsters, very 

 slight and unimportant violations of the rules. 

 I may state that the woods about the school stood 

 ready to furnish an unlimited supply of gads, 

 suitable for carrying out the scriptural injunc- 

 tion regarding the rod and the spoiled child. 



Scholars of earlier days at country schools, 

 will remember that the different classes used to 



