you'd
be standing there by the stove, kind of grinning and not thinking of
anything in particular when somebody would hit you a clout on your back
that just about broke you in two, and would tell you "to pass it on,"
and you'd pass it on, and the next thing was you'd think the house was
coming down. Such a chasing around and over benches, and upsetting the
water-bucket, and tearing up Jack generally that teacher would say,
"Boys! boys! If you can't play quietly, you'll have to go out of doors!"
Play quietly! Why, the idea! What kind of play is it when you are right
still?

Outdoors in the country, you can whoop and holler, and carry on, and
nobody complains to the board of health. And there are so many things
you can do. If there is just the least little fall of snow you can make
a big wheel, with spokes in it, by your tracking. I remember that it was
called "fox and geese," but that's all I can remember about it. If there
was a little more snow you tried to wash the girls' faces in it, and
sometimes got yours washed. If there was a good deal of wet snow you had
a snowball fight, which is great fun, unless you get one right smack dab
in your ear--oh, but I can't begin to tell you all the fun there is at
the noon hour in the country school, that the town children don't know
anything about. And when it was time for school to "take up," there
wasn't any forming in line, with a monitor to run tell teacher who
snatched off Joseph Humphreys' cap and flung it far away, so he had to
get out of the line, and who did this, and who did that--no penitentiary
business at all. Teacher tapped on the window with a ruler, and the boys
and girls came in, red-faced and puffing, careering through the aisles,
knocking things off the desks with many a burlesque, "oh, exCUSE me!"
and falling into their seats, bursting into sniggers, they didn't know
what at. They had an hour and a half nooning. Counting that it took five
minutes to shovel down even grandma's beautiful "piece," that left an
hour and twenty-five minutes for roaring, romping play. If you want to
know, I think that is fully as educational and a far better preparation
for life than sitting still with your nose stuck in a book.

In the city schools they don't think so. Even the stingy fifteen
minutes' recess, morning and afternoon, has been stolen from the
children. Instead is given the inspiriting physical culture, all making
silly motions together in a nice, warm room, full of s