compunction, on the hard floor. Hung about, on wooden pegs driven into
the walls, are the shapeless yellow "caubeens" of such as can boast the
luxury of a hat, or caps made of goat or hare's skin, the latter having
the ears of the animal rising ludicrously over the temples, or cocked
out at the sides, and the scut either before or behind, according to the
taste or the humor of the wearer. The floor, which is only swept every
Saturday, is strewed over with tops of quills, pens, pieces of broken
slate, and tattered leaves of "Reading made Easy," or fragments of old
copies. In one corner is a knot engaged at "Fox and Geese," or the "Walls
of Troy" on their slates; in another, a pair of them are "fighting
bottles," which consists in striking the bottoms together, and he whose
bottle breaks first, of course, loses. Behind the master is a third set,
playing "heads and points"--a game of pins. Some are more industriously
employed in writing their copies, which they perform seated on the
ground, with their paper on a copy-board--a piece of planed deal, the
size of the copy, an appendage now nearly exploded--their cheek-bones
laid within half an inch of the left side of the copy, and the eye set
to guide the motion of the hand across, and to regulate the straightness
of the lines and the forms of the letters. Others, again, of the more
grown boys, are working their sums with becoming industry. In a dark
corner are a pair of urchins thumping each other, their eyes steadily
fixed on the master, lest he might happen to glance in that direction.
Near the master himself are the larger boys, from twenty-two to
fifteen--shaggy-headed slips, with loose-breasted shirts lying open
about their bare chests; ragged colts, with white, dry, bristling beards
upon them, that never knew a razor; strong stockings on their legs;
heavy brogues, with broad, nail-paved soles; and breeches open at the
knees. Nor is the establishment without a competent number of females.
These were, for the most part, the daughters of wealthy farmers, who
considered it necessary to their respectability, that they should not