12 HISTORY OF THE MACOUN FAMILY 



whether I succeeded or not, I was always whipped. One day we 

 had a hard lesson and nearly the whole class had failed and the 

 law was that for each word you missed you got a slap on the hand 

 with a ruler. I saw that it was going to be serious and behind my 

 back I shook my fist at a small boy who was our best crier, and 

 let him understand that if he would not cry I would thrash him 

 when school was out. He understood me, as I had done it before, 

 and he immediately began to yell at the top of his voice and the 

 teacher could not stop him and eventually when there was quiet, 

 asked him why he cried and the boy said: "John Macoun said 

 he would whip me if I did not." The teacher turned to me and 

 said: "I intend to do the whipping today" and he gave me what 

 he had intended for the whole class. That was the kind of school- 

 ing we got in Ireland in the days when I was a small boy. 



Every afternoon, when school was let out, we waited for the 

 Roman Catholic children to come from their school and then we 

 would have a decent set-to. I, apparently, was a little savage as 

 my forte was to dash in and catch a boy by the hair (they wore 

 long hair in those days) and never let go until I had hammered 

 him below the belt so severely that he would cry "quit." Hence, 

 I never remember losing a fight but I was often afraid. 



I never attempted to smoke but once, when my brother got 

 a clay pipe and tobacco and he and I and our younger brother 

 had a good smoke. Then we ate apples and suffered horribly all 

 night afterwards. My elder brother and I never touched tobacco 

 after that. I was always active and fond of work, whether I got 

 pay or not. I remember picking a field, that is, clearing it of 

 stones. I had taken the contract from my uncle for doing it, 

 working hard for ten days or more at four pence half penny per 

 day. 



Another characteristic was the power of seeing. I could 

 find more strawberries and more birds' nests and got more fun 

 out of our games than any other boy. One thing I would never 

 do, and that was to play with what was called a "bad boy." In 

 front of our own house a number of us were playing on the street 

 one day when a "bad boy" attempted to join us. I would not 

 allow it, and when my back was turned he took a race at me and 



