en shot, and I, who had no politics, was yet full of
pride, for it is romantic to live in a dangerous country.

I daresay I thought the rough manners of a cheap school, as my grandfather
Yeats had those of a chance companion, typical of all England. At any rate
I had a harassed life & got many a black eye and had many outbursts of
grief and rage. Once a boy, the son of a great Bohemian glass-maker, and
who was older than the rest of us, and had been sent out of his country
because of a love affair, beat a boy for me because we were "both
foreigners." And a boy, who grew to be the school athlete and my chief
friend, beat a great many. His are the face and name that I remember--his
name was of Huguenot origin and his face like his gaunt and lithe body had
something of the American Indian in colour and lineament.

I was very much afraid of the other boys, and that made me doubt myself
for the first time. When I had gathered pieces of wood in the corner for
my great ship, I was confident that I could keep calm among the storms and
die fighting when the great battle came. But now I was ashamed of my lack
of courage; for I wanted to be like my grandfather who thought so little
of danger that he had jumped overboard in the Bay of Biscay after an old
hat. I was very much afraid of physical pain, and one day when I had made
some noise in class, my friend the athlete was accused and I allowed him
to get two strokes of the cane before I gave myself up. He had held out
his hands without flinching and had not rubbed them on his sides
afterwards. I was not caned, but was made to stand up for the rest of the
lesson. I suffered very much afterwards when the thought came to me, but
he did not reproach me.

I had been some years at school before I had my last fight. My friend, the
athlete, had given me many months of peace, but at last refused to beat
any more and said I must learn to box, and not go near the other boys till
I knew how. I went home with him every day and boxed in his room, and the
bouts had always the same ending. My excitability gave me an advantage at
first and I would drive him across the room, and then he would drive me
across and it would end very commonly with my nose bleeding. One day his
father, an elderly banker, brought us out into the garden and tried to
make us box in a cold-blooded, courteous way, but it was no use. At last
he said I might go near the boys again and I was no sooner inside the gate
of the pl