INTO BALLAD-LAND. 107 



fading geraniums occupied a bench which ought to have been 

 used by the children. Being harvest-time, only about eleven 

 urchins were present. Discipline seemed somewhat lax ; one 

 kept his cap on while we were there. What would "my Lords " 

 have said to all this in an English school ? Discarding official 

 questions, we asked the weary-looking master in a friendly way 

 what he taught. His answer showed that we had fallen upon 

 a walking cyclopaedia. No wonder he looked pale. " I jist 

 teach Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, sketching, and 

 painting." 



" And what are you paid for all this ? " 



" I never had more than four shillings a quarter for each 

 pupil. Average attendance ? Say forty-four out of a popula- 

 tion of four hundred. In Latin I take them on to Horace. 

 Then most of the hinds' sons go to a university, and there 

 follow up their Latin and Greek." 



Smarting with memories of our own youth at the Perth 

 seminaries, we inquired " Have you a pair of taws ? " (a terrible 

 instrument made of leather as thick as the trace of a carriage, 

 with fringed ends, applied in Scotland to the palms of the idle 

 in the shape of " palmies "). 



" Have I taws ? Oo ay ; but I dinna ken where it is. I sae 

 seldom use it. I mostly sharpen my razors upon it ! " 



After that we gave him up. The idea of proposing high 

 moral motives to such urchins as our friend taught was absurd. 

 The good old plan of beating boys has not yet been proved 

 inferior to the lofty, moral, persuasive method of modern times. 

 Crabbe's philosophy is still sound, 



" To tell a boy that if he will improve, 

 His friends will praise him and his parents love, 

 Is doing nothing he has not a doubt 

 But they will love him, nay applaud, without ; 

 Let no fond sire a boy's ambition trust, 

 To make him study let him see he must ! " 



