Evening star., 1901-09-07
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED

HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED
'.Nope," remarked the father OF family
of boys, 81 don't profess to understand it
this thing of boys being glad that schoof s
about to take up again. And, by the way,
they don't even call 1t taking up any
more They say the session about to be-
GIN or the resumption Of school or some
thing like that It used to be when school
was going to take up when 1 was tad.
But, as I was saying, can't make out
how 1t is that the boys of this era are glad
when the summer vacations over and they
are booked to go to school again. There
sure must be something wrong about 1t.
All o. my boys we actually been looking
forward to the taking up of school for at
least a month and their eyes glisten when
they talk about 1t. / was bit afraid that
my boys were exceptions In this respect,
but I've been listening to the talk or tne
other boys in the neighborhood, and they
all are anxious to get back to the school
game. What's wrong with the Kids or TINS
day and date, anyhow, that they want to
get back to school? OF course, ! insist upon
my boys going to school, and if they evinc-
ed any disposition to play hockey I'd lam
the daylfghts out of EN-; and yet, at that'
I've got a sneaking notion that they q make
more of a hit with me If they weren't SO
all-fired anxious to get back to the school
business after the summer vacation. That
used to be the characteristic of the girls
in my boyhood days. The girls were all
sorry when school let out for the summer.
But the boys? Never!
'Why, 1 can remember right down to the
present minute the gloom that used to
overwhelm me as the days slipped by along
about this season and the inevitable taking
up of school bore down upon me. Honest
Injun, it didn't seem to me that there was
much left in life as the dread day drew
nigh. The fishin' was just about getting
good and had the deep hole in the creek
all charted out and Staked around as my
peculiar property when it was up to me to
hearken to the bell in the sawed-off bell
tower Of the little old red school house.
School always took up just about when
the walnuts were due to begin dropping
from the trees, and when the persimmons
were only waiting for few chilly nights
to begin to pucker up, and the paw-paWs
were turning yaller, and the hazel nuts
were taking on their russet tints, and the
haws and wild crabapples were becoming
incarnadined. and-well, school took up at
an Internally inconvenient season Tor
boy as l well remember.
II can remember the great, oppressive
misery that used to fill my bosom when I'd
wake up on the morning that school took
up after the summer vacation. The worst
job was to get my shoes on. You see, l
wouldn't have had a pair of shoes on my
feet from the day school let out-used TO
go barefoot all during vacation. But 1t
was OF course a case OF SnOeS 10 20 u
school, and if it wasn't always a dickens
of a job to get them then 1 don't know
what m talking about. My feet would be
swollen up from going barefoot about three
sizes bigger'n the shoes I'd abandoned for
the vacation. and they'd be stone bruised
and cut with glass and with the scars In
'em Of many slivers, and 1t always cost me
about an hour Of horrible wretchedness to
get the things on, and they'd feel as II
they were made of iron for four or five
days after the beginning of school. Then
there was the plowing around for the old
Third Reader and the broken slate, and the
touching of my big sister for cent (Which
I'd blow in on taffy) wherewith to buy
slate pencil; and, finally, the awful separa-
tion for the morning from my dog. The
dog and / would've been inseparable pals
since the very beginning of the vacation.
and here l was compelled to go away for
three or four hours and leave him alone!
1t was sure cruel! The dog 'ud look re-
proachfully at me as if I was about to de-
sert him forever, and then he'd crawl un-
der the barn and decline to be comforted
for days.
"Then, upon arriving at school the first
morning. there was the misery and confu-
sion of reorganization, and the wretched-
ness of being remOrseleSsly placed right
alongside some pretty but abhorred little
girl. Gee, how / used to scheme to be put
with boy instead of with a girl, and how
/ used to inwardly fume when I was in
variably carded to take a place alongside
the prettiest and sauciest and flirtiest and
rosiest little girl in the whole school. 1t
used to. make me so sore-idiot that was!
Nobody ever tries to just make me sit
alongside pretty girls nowadays, but
Nope" concluded the father Of family
of boys breaking off suddenly, II can't
make 1t out. 1t may be all right for small
boy to want to get back to his studies, but
in my day we used to chase the school
loving boy nine miles every evening after
school. and club the head off him when we