344 MY COUNTRY WANDERINGS 



The boys rise at 6 a.m. week days, and at 7 

 a.m. on Sundays. They are in bed soon after 

 8 p.m. Visiting days for parents and relatives 

 are the first Monday in January, April, July, and 

 October. Letters are answered fortnightly by 

 the boys if stamped addressed envelopes are 

 supplied by their friends. It seems unkind to 

 contemplate, but it is nevertheless a fact, that 

 many of these " relatives and friends " do not 

 seem to trouble about the boys until they have 

 reached a wage-earning age, and then they are 

 most solicitous as to their welfare! I was told of 

 one case where a parent wrote to a boy because he 

 had reached an age when perchance he might be 

 earning a trifle, and the boy had been dead and 

 buried four or five years ! No church is at present 

 attached to the school, but the boys march to 

 church once a month. Services are held every 

 Sunday at the school^ and prayers said every evening. 



Any music, did you say ? Here there is as fine a 

 boys' band as one could wish to listen to. Being 

 the Sabbath we were treated to a classical piece 

 — a selection from " Faust " — and the fine tone, 

 the precision, and the enthusiasm of the whole 

 of the band boys will not be readily effaced from 

 my memory. Little imps no higher than a table 

 armed with kettle drums, euphoniums, double 

 bass, piccolos and flutes, cornets, clarionets, and 

 not forgetting the drummer boy, with his left arm 



