352 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:8— Nov., 1918 



and proudly with slate-full examples in compound fractions; 

 and having committed to memory all the rules, we finished English 

 grammar once for all at the advanced age of eleven. All of 

 which achievements would convict us through the words of our 

 own mouth — in the opinion of a modern pedagogue. 



However, one great fundamental fact remains: Our lessons 

 were a pleasure because there was no limit put upon our achieve- 

 ments, — there was no reason why "we should not arrive as fast 

 as we could get there." Thus it was that we did not grow in 

 graded sections but waved our shooting branches in any direction 

 where we found sunshine and a chance. 



What a long line of teachers they were, and how they stand 

 fast in memory! Almost all of them were admirable for some 

 qualities which child hero-worship found worthy; and there 

 were heroes among them too! Could we ever forget the young 

 man who taking the shawl which he wore instead of an 

 overcoat, from his own back hsld it before the faces of four of us 

 little folk and thus walked backward through a fierce blizzard 

 a quarter of a mile to the nearest farmhouse, meanwhile freezing 

 both his hands ! There was an artist among them too, who taught 

 us to love the beautiful in nature, she being the most beautiful 

 creation of all. There were orators and poets who taught us to 

 speak and to read what had been written in our literature; and 

 there were those who reached out into science and taught us to 

 reverence the stars. 



The old school house itself we loved although it was not a 

 beautiful structure. It stood on the crest of a hill so high that 

 sometimes the clouds came down and played with us ; and from its- 

 windows we could overlook broad valleys on three sides, and 

 thirty miles away along the horizon was blue Lake Erie studded 

 with white dots which we knew were sailing ships. To be sure, 

 the benches and desks bore the escutcheons of the former occu- 

 pants but we liked them all the better for that; ours had on it 

 M. E. B. the initials of a rosy-cheeked sweet faced "big girl" 

 who graced the place only a year or so after our advent; she was 

 wont to wear a broad leghorn hat trimmed with blue ribbon a 

 long piece of which was fastened to the front of the band, its- 

 free end being held in the hand of the fair wearer to keep the hat 

 from being swept off by the wind, — a coquettish device that en- 



