School & Education Books

CHAPTER I There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.  We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question. I was glad of it: I never liked long walks,... more...

1 MR. JACKSON MAKES UP HIS MIND If Mike had been in time for breakfast that fatal Easter morning he might have gathered from the expression on his father's face, as Mr. Jackson opened the envelope containing his school report and read the contents, that the document in question was not exactly a paean of praise from beginning to end. But he was late, as usual. Mike always was late for breakfast in... more...

A RUNAWAY AUTOMOBILE. "Li, there! Hook out!" shouted Harry Rattleton. "Hi, there! Look out!" echoed Bart Hodge, getting the words straight which Harry had twisted. "Get out of the way, fellows!" warned Jack Diamond. "The juice that it's loaded with must be bug juice!" squealed Danny Griswold. "It's crazy drunk!" "Tut-tut-tut-turn the cuc-crank the... more...

Five Little Peppers at School I   HARD TIMES FOR JOEL “Come on, Pepper.” One of the boys rushed down the dormitory hall, giving a bang on Joel's door as he passed. “All right,” said Joel a bit crossly, “I'm coming.” “Last bell,” came back on the wind. Joel threw his tennis racket on the bed, and scowled. Just then a flaxen head peeped in, and two big eyes stared at him.... more...

The Woodlands "Are they never going to turn up?" "It's almost four now!" "They'll be left till the six-thirty!" "Oh, don't alarm yourself! The valley train always waits for the express." "It's coming in now!" "Oh, good, so it is!" "Late by twenty minutes exactly!" "Stand back there!" yelled a porter, setting down a box... more...

PREFACE TO NEW EDITION Books have their fates and this one's has been curious. I wrote it between January and March 1916, when I was seventeen and a half years old and in camp at Berkhamsted with the Inns of Court O.T.C. I loathed it there, everything about it, the impersonal military machine, the monotonous routine of drills and musketry, the endless foot-slogging, the perpetual petty... more...

CHAPTER I GETTING A MOTOR BOAT "If you are going with the boys on the river, Jack, you will have to get a motor-boat. Won't you let me buy you one?" "No, not a bit of it, Dick." "But you want one?" "Certainly, and I am going to have one." "But motor-boats cost money, Jack. Why, mine cost me——-" "Never mind what it cost, Dick. You spend a lot more... more...

Childhood. Ah dear delights, that o’er my soulOn memory’s wing like shadows fly!Ah flowers that Joy from Eden stole,While Innocence stood laughing by. Coleridge. “Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!” cried a young boy, as he capered vigorously about, and clapped his hands. “Father and mother will be home in a week now, and then we shall stay here a little time, and then, and then, I shall go to... more...

Speech-Day at Harton. “A little bench of heedless bishops there,And here a chancellor in embryo.” Shenstone. It was Speech-day at Harton. From an early hour handsome equipages had been dashing down the street, and depositing their occupants at the masters’ houses. The perpetual rolling of wheels distracted the attention every moment, and curiosity was keenly on the alert to catch a glimpse of the... more...

MAINLY ABOUT FENN "When we get licked tomorrow by half-a-dozen wickets," said Jimmy Silver, tilting his chair until the back touched the wall, "don't say I didn't warn you. If you fellows take down what I say from time to time in note-books, as you ought to do, you'll remember that I offered to give anyone odds that Kay's would out us in the final. I always said that a... more...