My Boyhood and Youth 



belonging to either school was drawn into it. 

 After both sides were sore and weary, a strong- 

 lunged warrior would be heard above the din of 

 battle shouting, "I'll tell ye what we'll dae 

 wi' ye. If ye '11 let us alane we '11 let ye alane ! " 

 and the school war ended as most wars between 

 nations do; and some of them begin in much 

 the same way. 



Notwithstanding the great number of harshly 

 enforced rules, not very good order was kept in 

 school in my time. There were two schools 

 within a few rods of each other, one for mathe- 

 matics, navigation, etc., the other, called the 

 grammar school, that I attended. The masters 

 lived in a big freestone house within eight or 

 ten yards of the schools, so that they could 

 easily step out for anything they wanted or 

 send one of the scholars. The moment our 

 master disappeared, perhaps for a book or a 

 drink, every scholar left his seat and his lessons, 

 jumped on top of the benches and desks or 

 crawled beneath them, tugging, rolling, wrest- 

 ling, accomplishing in a minute a depth of 

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