indulged in, I considered highly undignified. I was always escorted
to and from school very sedately, and I felt the humiliation of being
conducted. I was sometimes laughed at by my school-mates with whom I was
not at all popular; and I had a disdain for those who, like myself, were
in bondage. I had scarcely an idea in common with them.

Even Thursdays I had to give to the preparation of lessons that took the
entire day. The written tasks, absurd exercises, I scrawled off in the
most careless and illegible handwriting.

And my disgust for life was so great that I no longer took the least bit
of pains with myself; often now I was scolded for looking so unkempt,
and for having dirty, ink-stained hands. . . . But if I continue in
this strain I will succeed in making my recital as tedious as were the
school-days of my youth.




CHAPTER L.



Cakes! Cakes! My good hot cakes! The old cake woman had resumed her
nightly tour, and again we heard her rapid footsteps and her shrill
refrain. Always at the same hour, with the regularity of an automaton,
she went by our house. And the long winter recommenced in the same
manner as had the preceding ones, and as were similarly to begin the
following two or three years.