before, and of which it would be hard to find an instance in all Central
Park.

Climate undoubtedly has something to do with this. The air is moist, and
the mercury rarely rises above 80° or falls below 10°. Also the
comparative quiet of their lives helps to make them so beautiful and
strong. But the most significant fact to my mind is that, until the past
year, there have been in Nova Scotia no public schools, comparatively few
private ones; and in these there is no severe pressure brought to bear on
the pupils. The private schools have been expensive, consequently it has
been very unusual for children to be sent to school before they were
_eight or nine_ years of age; I could not find a person who had ever known
of a child's being sent to school _under seven!_ The school sessions are
on the old plan of six hours per day,--from nine till twelve, and from one
till four; but no learning of lessons out of school has been allowed.
Within the last year a system of free public schools has been introduced,
"and the people are grumbling terribly about it," said my informant.
"Why?" I asked; "because they do not wish to have their children
educated?" "Oh, no," said he; "because they do not like to pay the taxes!"
"Alas!" I thought, "if it were only their silver which would be taxed!"

I must not be understood to argue from the health of the children of Nova
Scotia, as contrasted with the lack of health among our children, that it
is best to have no public schools; only that it is better to have no
public schools than to have such public schools as are now killing off our
children.

The registration system of Nova Scotia is as yet imperfectly carried out.
It is almost impossible to obtain exact returns from all parts of so
thinly settled a country. But such statistics as have been already