The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-04-04
School and Recess, 7

Although the country boy feels lit
tie joy when school breaks up las he
does when anything breaks up, or any
change takes place., since he is released
| from the discipline and restraint of it,
yet the school is his opening into the
world, his romance Its, Opportunities
for enjoyment are number1ess. He does
not exactly know what he is setat books
for !; he takes spelling rather as an exer-
else for his lungs, standing up and
shouting out his words with entire reek-
lessness of consequences ! he grapples
doggedly with 'rithmetic and geography
as something that must be cleared out
of his way before recess, but not at all
with the zest he would dig awoodchuelS
out of his hole. oH reb A0l
| But recess Was ever any enjoyment
so keen as that with which boy rushes
out of the schoolhouse door, for the ten
minutes of recessP He is like to burst
with animal spirits; he runs like a deer
he can nearly fly, and he throws him
self into play with entire self-forgetful-
ness, and an energy that would over
throw the world if his strength were
proportional to it. For ten minutes the
world is absolutely his; the weights are
taken off, restraints are loosed, and he is
his own master for that brief time--as
he never again will be if he lives to be as
old as the King of Thule, and nobody
knows how old he was. a
And there is the incoming, q solid hour,
i'll which vast projects can be carried out
which have been slyly matured during
the school hours expeditions are un-
dertaken, wars are begun between the
Indians on one side and the settlers on
the other, the military company is drill
ed, (without uniforms or arms), or games
are carried on which involve miles of
running and an expenditure of wind suf-
ficient to spell the spelling book through
at the highest pitch. -. .r ..-
Friendships are formed, too, which are
fervent if not enduring, and enmities
contracted which are frequently taken
out" on the spot, after rough. fashion
boys have of settling as they go along; /;
cases Of long credit, either in words or
trade, are not frequent with boys; boots
on jack-knives must be paid on the nail .
and it is considered much more honora-
BILE to out with a personal grievance at
once, even if the explanation is sneak
ing revenge on some concealed opportu-
nifty.
The country boy at the district school
is introduced into wider world than he
knew at home in many ways. Some big
boy brings to school copy of the
Arabian Nights Il dog-eared copy, with
cover, title-page and the last leaves mis-
sing, which is passed around, and slyly
read under the desk, and perhaps comes
to the little boy whose parents disap-
prove of novel-reading, and have no
work of fiction in the house except a
pious fraud called "Six Months in a
Convent" and the latest comic almanac.
The boys eyes dilate as he steals some of
the treasures out of the wondrous pages,
and he longs to lose himself in the land
of enchantment open before him. He
tells at home that he has seen the most
wonderful book that ever was, and big
boy has promised to lend it to him.
els it trao book, John Z" asks the
grandmother. Because if it isn't true,
it is the worst thing that boy can
read"
This happened years ago.
John cannot answer as to the truth of
the book, and so does not bring it home
but he borrows it nevertheless, and con-
ceals it in the barn, and lying in the
haymow is lost in its entertainments
many an odd hour when he is supposed
to be doing chores. There were no
chores in the Arabian Nights; the boy
there had but to rub the ring and sum
mon genus, who would feed the calves
and pick up chips and bring in wood in
a minute. 1t was through this .emblaz-
oned portal that the boy walked into
the world of books, which he soon found
was larger than his own, and filled with
people he longed to know. Ga. .