ON BOYHOOD DAYS 



were instead crowded into schoolrooms that in 

 winter were overheated and ill-ventilated, and 

 forced to the unwelcome and unnatural and harm- 

 ful task of scanning pages of pothooks and cram- 

 ming their unwilling brains with formulae, to 

 their permanent detriment. 



Not even on Saturday was there a respite; 

 except that each second week school was dis- 

 missed at noon on that day in order that oppor- 

 tunity might be given in the afternoon for the 

 washing of the children's clothes. Even a thrifty 

 housewife who had a dozen or fifteen boys and 

 girls of graded sizes and ages to look after could 

 not be expected to provide more than a single suit 

 of underwear for each member of her brood. 



So it was jestingly said, and the jest was not 

 altogether without its savor of reality, that it was 

 often necessary to put the children in barrels 

 while their clothes were in the wash-tub. 



But in any event, the necessity for maintaining 

 a certain measure of cleanliness had the effect of 

 permitting the children to have a half holiday once 

 in two weeks. 



And I opine that most of them were more bene- 

 fited by that half holiday, even though it were 

 spent in a barrel or its equivalent, than they would 

 have been by following their school tasks during 

 the same period. 



[27] 



