Their pumps mostly squeaked, and nobody noticed it, although I have
known my parents to dismiss a Butler who creaked at the table.
When I was sent away to school, I expected to learn something of life.
But I was disapointed. I do not desire to criticize this Institution of
Learning. It is an excellent one, as is shown by the fact that the best
Families send their daughters here. But to learn life one must know
something of both sides of it, Male and Female. It was, therefore, a
matter of deep regret to me to find that, with the exception of the
Dancing Master, who has three children, and the Gardner, there were no
members of the sterner sex to be seen.
The Athletic Coach was a girl! As she has left now to be married, I
venture to say that she was not what Lord Chesterfield so uphoniously
termed "SUAVITER IN MODO, FORTATER IN RE."
When we go out to walk we are taken to the country, and the three
matinees a year we see in the city are mostly Shakspeare, aranged for
the young. We are allowed only certain magazines, the Atlantic Monthly
and one or two others, and Barbara Armstrong was penalized for having a
framed photograph of her brother in running clothes.
At the school dances we are compeled to dance with each other, and the
result is that when at home at Holaday parties I always try to lead,
which annoys the boys I dance with.
Notwithstanding all this it is an excellent school. We learn a great
deal, and our dear Principle is a most charming and erudite person. But
we see very little of Life. And if school is a preparation for Life,
where are we?
Being here alone since the day after Christmas, I have had time to think
everything out. I am naturally a thinking person. And now I am no longer
indignant. I realize that I was wrong, and that I am only paying the
penalty that I deserve although I consider it most unfair to be given
French translation to do. I do not object to going to bed at nine
o'clock, although ten is the hour in the Upper House, because I have
time then to look back over things, and to reflect, to think.
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
SHAKSPEARE.
BODY OF THEME: I now approach the narative of what happened during the first four days
of my Christmas Holiday.
For a period before the fifteenth of December, I was rather worried. All
the girls in the school were getting new clothes for Christmas parties,
and their Families were sending on invitations in great numbers, to
various festivaties that were to occur when they went home.