August 18, 2025 • 12 mins
In this enchanting memoir, the author takes us on a nostalgic journey through her school days, originally serialized in The Girls Own Paper from October 1896 to September 1897. Filled with heartfelt stories about beloved teachers, cherished friends, and the childhood fears that lingered into adulthood, this account also offers a vibrant depiction of the most memorable summer of her youth. Summary by Cori Samuel.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part ten of My School Days by Enair's bit. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part ten Pirates
and Explorers. That summer was an ideally happy one. My mother,
with a wisdom for which I shall thank her all
(00:20):
my days, allowed us to run wild. We were expected
to appear at meals with some approach to punctuality, and
with hands and faces moderately clean. Sometimes, when visitors were expected,
we were seized and scrubbed and clothed, and made to
look something like the good little children we were not.
Then my brothers fidgeted awkwardly on their chairs and tried
(00:43):
to conceal their hands and feet, while I nibbled a
biscuit or cake in an agony of shyness, not quite
unrelieved by sneaking appreciation of my fine dress, an appreciation
for which my brothers would never have forgiven me had
I been foolish enough to show it. But as a
rule we were left to go our own way, and
(01:03):
a very happy way it was. I don't mean that
we were neglected. My eldest sister was always a refuge
on wet days when a fairy story seemed to be
the best thing to be had. In the midst of
all the parties, picnics and gaieties in which our elders
were plunged. My other sister found time to read aloud
to us, and to receive such confidences as we deemed
(01:26):
it wise to make concerning our plans and plays. We
had gauged the possibilities of the lofts correctly, with trusses
of hay or straw, a magnificent fort could be made.
I usually held the fort when the boys had built it,
and the weakness of the garrison was lessened by the
introduction of the two dogs, who defended it, with me
(01:48):
nobly understanding perfectly the parts they had to play. We
got the black pig up once, but that was a
failure when there was no time to organize a play,
when it was not worth while to begin anything, because
dinner or breakfast would be ready in a few minutes.
It was a constant delight to scale the wall behind
the stable and watch the great wooden wheel slowly dragged
(02:11):
round the circular stone trough where the apples for cider lay.
The old blind white horse, harnessed to the wheel, went
sleepily round and round. You could hear the crunch, crunch,
of the apples as the great wooden wheel went over them,
and smell the sweet scent of the crushed fruit as
you sat swinging your legs on the wall among the
(02:33):
yellow stone crop and sulfur colored snap dragon. Or if
you had the time to spare, what rapture to balance
yourself on the edge of the stone trough and walk
round it, just behind the big wheel, knowing that if
you slipped, you might fall on a muddy track outside,
but that you were much more likely to fall into
the trough itself, in which case your pinafore and stockings
(02:56):
we wore white stockings then would be richly stained with
apples who stood the color of red rust. If the
farmer were in a good temper, he would sometimes take
you in to see the apples put in the press.
You had to climb up by rough steps cut in
the beams. If the press was nearly full at the top,
on a little platform stood the farmer, drawing up the
(03:18):
crushed apples from below by bucketsful, and spreading them on
their bed of clean straw with a wooden shovel, a
lair of straw and a lair of apples. And when
the press was full, the big beams screwed down. We
hastened below to see the russet juice run out from
its stone channel into the great vats. Though the farmer
(03:39):
joined our house, it was not our property, but as
far as we children were concerned, it was just as
good as ours, for the farmer allowed us the same
privileges that he accorded to his own children. That is
to say, if the farmer were in a good temper,
we might watch any of the farming operations. If he
were not, his own children had to keep out of
(04:00):
the way, and so had we. There was a delightful
pond in the field where the farm horses went to drink.
It had a trampled muddy shore on one side, and
on the other a high bank of yellow clay. We
made a raft, of course, out of an old door
and two barrels, and successfully sailed across to the yellow cliffs.
(04:21):
How nice it would be, I said, if there were
a cave in these cliffs, we can have no end
of a good time, and be pirates and things. You
don't suppose, said Alfred scornfully, that a pirate chief would
wait to find a cave. If he wanted one, He
would make one, of course, I shall make one. I
don't believe you can, said Harry, and I in a breath.
(04:45):
All right, said my brother. You'll see next morning, when
Harry and I went out to the field there was
Alfred ankle deep in water, shoveling out clay from the bank.
What a big hole you've made, said I. I believe
I could get into it if I curled up very much, ah,
(05:05):
said my brother grimly. You thought I couldn't do it?
Do you mean to say you aren't going to let
us go? Shares? Said Harry, reading his brother's tone instantly,
Not a share, said Alfred firmly. This is going to
be my cave, and if I find any one in
it without my leave, I'll throw him to the alligators.
(05:25):
There aren't any alligators, said Harry. There are only ducks,
and indeed there were several swimming about the yellow waters
of the pond. All right, said Alfred, cheerfully, sending a
large spade full of clay splashing into the pond. I'll
throw you to the ducks, then, I dare say they'll
do just as well. Alfred worked with what seemed to
(05:47):
us superhuman vigor, and before evening there really was a
hole in the clay bank big enough for him to
get into if, as I said, he curled himself up
very much. He'll be tired of it to morrow, said
Harry to me, privately, reasoning from his former experience of
his brother, And then he'll let us have it. But
(06:08):
the next day we found that the roof of the
cave had fallen in. No one need want to have
it now, I said, But I was mistaken. The land slip,
while filling up, had enlarged the hole, so that when
the loose clay was cleared out, there was a space
large enough for us all to have got in, even
with the dogs. Alfred twisted some straw into a rope
(06:32):
and made it with string into a rough mat. This
he put at the bottom of his rough cave. I
timidly offered to help with this, but my offers was
sternly rejected. You said I couldn't do it, he said,
and I'll jolly well show you I can. Harry came
to me a little later when I was feeding my rabbits.
(06:53):
He's got it all so nice, he said. He's roofed
it over with a hurdle, and he's put a bit
of old tarpaulin over it, and he's fastening it down
with big stones like the people in the Swiss family Robinson,
I wish you'd let us share in it. Look here,
I said, let's walk into town and get him a present.
Then he'll see we're sorry we said he couldn't do it.
(07:15):
In the broiling sun, we walked the five miles into
the town and back, returning with a large green sugar
stick wrapped in colored paper, which had taken all our
halfpence to buy. With this, we approached the pond. Alfred
was sitting in his cave with the raft moored at
his feet. I waved the sugar stick in the air.
(07:35):
Look here, Alfred, I said, here's a secret to Pom
for you. We've been all the way to Dean and
to get it, and we're sorry. We said you couldn't
you little duffers, He cried, I don't want your secret
to Pom. I only wanted you to say you were sorry.
You needn't have walked five miles in a broiling sun
to do that. You'd like to come over, wouldn't you,
he added, unmooring the raft. We really didn't mean to
(07:59):
vex you, I said, as he came across. Not another word,
he said handsomely, and rode us to the cave. It
was a very soft cave, and we had no means
of breaking the sucret upom, so we took it in
turns to suck it. Alfred, after some persuasion, consenting to
join us in the feast that so as not to
(08:20):
hurt our feelings, He said that cave was a joy
to us for many a day, though there was generally
at least half an inch of water in it, and
we didn't abandon it till the autumn rains had swelled
the pond water and raised it above the level of
our cave. It was a grand day for us when
we first discovered our stream. It was three or four
(08:41):
fields from our house and ran through a beautiful meadow
with sloping woods on each side. Its bottom was partly
of shining sand and stone, and in some places of
clay we built dams and bridges With the clay. We
caught fish with butterfly nets in the sandy shallows. We
called it the nile and pretended there were crocodiles in it,
(09:02):
and that the rocks among the woods were temples and pyramids.
One day, Alfred proposed that we should try and find
the source of it. We shall have to travel through
a very wild country, he said, explorers always do, and
we shall want a good lot of provisions for I
don't suppose we should get back before dinner time. So
you kids had better sneak as much bread and butter
(09:23):
as you can at breakfast, and I'll sneak what I
can out of the larder, and we'll start directly after
breakfast tomorrow. We secured a goodly stock of provisions in
an old nose bag which we found in the stables,
but it was so heavy that we were glad to
hide it under the second hedge that we passed, and
go on with only what we could carry in our pockets.
(09:45):
We struck the river the usual point. I think we
ought to wade up, said Alfred. There are no crocodiles
in this part of the river, but the lions and
tigers on the banks are something awful. So we waded upstream,
which is hiring work. Let me tell you, I don't
see a single lion, I said, presently, But I'm sure
(10:06):
I saw a crocodile just now under that bank. So
we got out and walked by the stream's edge on
the fine, short some warmed turf. But presently we came
to the end of the field. The stream ran through
a wood, and we had to take to wading again,
But the water was much shallower and it was easy.
We ate some of our provisions, sitting upon a large, flat,
(10:28):
moss covered stone in the middle of the stream. Then
we went on again. Harry began to get rather tired.
We shall never find the source of the stream, he said,
I shouldn't wonder if it's thousands of miles away, somewhere
up by Paris. I dare say, I vote we turned back,
but his suggestion was howled down by the exploring party,
(10:49):
and we went on through a meadow where the flax
was drying in stocks. Then through another wood we followed
the stream, and then, with a thrill of delight, we
saw that the water ran from a little brick tunnel,
the mouth of which was draped in a green veil
of maidenhair. I suppose it was about four feet high.
(11:09):
You'll turn back now, said Harry, triumphantly. For an answer,
Alfred stooped and plunged into the darkness of the little tunnel.
I followed and Harry brought up the rear. It was
back breaking work, but the floor was smooth. If we
had had to pick our way, we could never have
done it, for Alfred had only a few matches, and
(11:31):
lighted one very occasionally. At last we found ourselves again
in a dazzling sunlight, and behold our stream was meandering
through a wonderful swamp, full of grasses and curious flowers,
whose like I have never seen elsewhere. Our stream got
narrower and narrower, but we followed it faithfully, and at last,
(11:52):
crashing through a hedge, found ourselves in a roadway. Opposite
us in the high bank was a little stone basin
into which water trickled from above. From this basin, a
narrow stream of water, not more than a foot wide,
ran across the road and under the hedge. This was
the source of our stream. This a wayside well we
(12:15):
had passed a thousand times. We finished our provisions, and,
knowing now where we were, went home by road. The
swamp had coated us with black mud almost from head
to foot, and in this condition we marched gaily into
the garden, where my mother was entertaining a company of
rather smart friends. At afternoon tea. The sequel was bed
(12:42):
end of Part ten
Part ten of My School Days by Enair's bit. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part ten Pirates
and Explorers. That summer was an ideally happy one. My mother,
with a wisdom for which I shall thank her all
(00:20):
my days, allowed us to run wild. We were expected
to appear at meals with some approach to punctuality, and
with hands and faces moderately clean. Sometimes, when visitors were expected,
we were seized and scrubbed and clothed, and made to
look something like the good little children we were not.
Then my brothers fidgeted awkwardly on their chairs and tried
(00:43):
to conceal their hands and feet, while I nibbled a
biscuit or cake in an agony of shyness, not quite
unrelieved by sneaking appreciation of my fine dress, an appreciation
for which my brothers would never have forgiven me had
I been foolish enough to show it. But as a
rule we were left to go our own way, and
(01:03):
a very happy way it was. I don't mean that
we were neglected. My eldest sister was always a refuge
on wet days when a fairy story seemed to be
the best thing to be had. In the midst of
all the parties, picnics and gaieties in which our elders
were plunged. My other sister found time to read aloud
to us, and to receive such confidences as we deemed
(01:26):
it wise to make concerning our plans and plays. We
had gauged the possibilities of the lofts correctly, with trusses
of hay or straw, a magnificent fort could be made.
I usually held the fort when the boys had built it,
and the weakness of the garrison was lessened by the
introduction of the two dogs, who defended it, with me
(01:48):
nobly understanding perfectly the parts they had to play. We
got the black pig up once, but that was a
failure when there was no time to organize a play,
when it was not worth while to begin anything, because
dinner or breakfast would be ready in a few minutes.
It was a constant delight to scale the wall behind
the stable and watch the great wooden wheel slowly dragged
(02:11):
round the circular stone trough where the apples for cider lay.
The old blind white horse, harnessed to the wheel, went
sleepily round and round. You could hear the crunch, crunch,
of the apples as the great wooden wheel went over them,
and smell the sweet scent of the crushed fruit as
you sat swinging your legs on the wall among the
(02:33):
yellow stone crop and sulfur colored snap dragon. Or if
you had the time to spare, what rapture to balance
yourself on the edge of the stone trough and walk
round it, just behind the big wheel, knowing that if
you slipped, you might fall on a muddy track outside,
but that you were much more likely to fall into
the trough itself, in which case your pinafore and stockings
(02:56):
we wore white stockings then would be richly stained with
apples who stood the color of red rust. If the
farmer were in a good temper, he would sometimes take
you in to see the apples put in the press.
You had to climb up by rough steps cut in
the beams. If the press was nearly full at the top,
on a little platform stood the farmer, drawing up the
(03:18):
crushed apples from below by bucketsful, and spreading them on
their bed of clean straw with a wooden shovel, a
lair of straw and a lair of apples. And when
the press was full, the big beams screwed down. We
hastened below to see the russet juice run out from
its stone channel into the great vats. Though the farmer
(03:39):
joined our house, it was not our property, but as
far as we children were concerned, it was just as
good as ours, for the farmer allowed us the same
privileges that he accorded to his own children. That is
to say, if the farmer were in a good temper,
we might watch any of the farming operations. If he
were not, his own children had to keep out of
(04:00):
the way, and so had we. There was a delightful
pond in the field where the farm horses went to drink.
It had a trampled muddy shore on one side, and
on the other a high bank of yellow clay. We
made a raft, of course, out of an old door
and two barrels, and successfully sailed across to the yellow cliffs.
(04:21):
How nice it would be, I said, if there were
a cave in these cliffs, we can have no end
of a good time, and be pirates and things. You
don't suppose, said Alfred scornfully, that a pirate chief would
wait to find a cave. If he wanted one, He
would make one, of course, I shall make one. I
don't believe you can, said Harry, and I in a breath.
(04:45):
All right, said my brother. You'll see next morning, when
Harry and I went out to the field there was
Alfred ankle deep in water, shoveling out clay from the bank.
What a big hole you've made, said I. I believe
I could get into it if I curled up very much, ah,
(05:05):
said my brother grimly. You thought I couldn't do it?
Do you mean to say you aren't going to let
us go? Shares? Said Harry, reading his brother's tone instantly,
Not a share, said Alfred firmly. This is going to
be my cave, and if I find any one in
it without my leave, I'll throw him to the alligators.
(05:25):
There aren't any alligators, said Harry. There are only ducks,
and indeed there were several swimming about the yellow waters
of the pond. All right, said Alfred, cheerfully, sending a
large spade full of clay splashing into the pond. I'll
throw you to the ducks, then, I dare say they'll
do just as well. Alfred worked with what seemed to
(05:47):
us superhuman vigor, and before evening there really was a
hole in the clay bank big enough for him to
get into if, as I said, he curled himself up
very much. He'll be tired of it to morrow, said
Harry to me, privately, reasoning from his former experience of
his brother, And then he'll let us have it. But
(06:08):
the next day we found that the roof of the
cave had fallen in. No one need want to have
it now, I said, But I was mistaken. The land slip,
while filling up, had enlarged the hole, so that when
the loose clay was cleared out, there was a space
large enough for us all to have got in, even
with the dogs. Alfred twisted some straw into a rope
(06:32):
and made it with string into a rough mat. This
he put at the bottom of his rough cave. I
timidly offered to help with this, but my offers was
sternly rejected. You said I couldn't do it, he said,
and I'll jolly well show you I can. Harry came
to me a little later when I was feeding my rabbits.
(06:53):
He's got it all so nice, he said. He's roofed
it over with a hurdle, and he's put a bit
of old tarpaulin over it, and he's fastening it down
with big stones like the people in the Swiss family Robinson,
I wish you'd let us share in it. Look here,
I said, let's walk into town and get him a present.
Then he'll see we're sorry we said he couldn't do it.
(07:15):
In the broiling sun, we walked the five miles into
the town and back, returning with a large green sugar
stick wrapped in colored paper, which had taken all our
halfpence to buy. With this, we approached the pond. Alfred
was sitting in his cave with the raft moored at
his feet. I waved the sugar stick in the air.
(07:35):
Look here, Alfred, I said, here's a secret to Pom
for you. We've been all the way to Dean and
to get it, and we're sorry. We said you couldn't
you little duffers, He cried, I don't want your secret
to Pom. I only wanted you to say you were sorry.
You needn't have walked five miles in a broiling sun
to do that. You'd like to come over, wouldn't you,
he added, unmooring the raft. We really didn't mean to
(07:59):
vex you, I said, as he came across. Not another word,
he said handsomely, and rode us to the cave. It
was a very soft cave, and we had no means
of breaking the sucret upom, so we took it in
turns to suck it. Alfred, after some persuasion, consenting to
join us in the feast that so as not to
(08:20):
hurt our feelings, He said that cave was a joy
to us for many a day, though there was generally
at least half an inch of water in it, and
we didn't abandon it till the autumn rains had swelled
the pond water and raised it above the level of
our cave. It was a grand day for us when
we first discovered our stream. It was three or four
(08:41):
fields from our house and ran through a beautiful meadow
with sloping woods on each side. Its bottom was partly
of shining sand and stone, and in some places of
clay we built dams and bridges With the clay. We
caught fish with butterfly nets in the sandy shallows. We
called it the nile and pretended there were crocodiles in it,
(09:02):
and that the rocks among the woods were temples and pyramids.
One day, Alfred proposed that we should try and find
the source of it. We shall have to travel through
a very wild country, he said, explorers always do, and
we shall want a good lot of provisions for I
don't suppose we should get back before dinner time. So
you kids had better sneak as much bread and butter
(09:23):
as you can at breakfast, and I'll sneak what I
can out of the larder, and we'll start directly after
breakfast tomorrow. We secured a goodly stock of provisions in
an old nose bag which we found in the stables,
but it was so heavy that we were glad to
hide it under the second hedge that we passed, and
go on with only what we could carry in our pockets.
(09:45):
We struck the river the usual point. I think we
ought to wade up, said Alfred. There are no crocodiles
in this part of the river, but the lions and
tigers on the banks are something awful. So we waded upstream,
which is hiring work. Let me tell you, I don't
see a single lion, I said, presently, But I'm sure
(10:06):
I saw a crocodile just now under that bank. So
we got out and walked by the stream's edge on
the fine, short some warmed turf. But presently we came
to the end of the field. The stream ran through
a wood, and we had to take to wading again,
But the water was much shallower and it was easy.
We ate some of our provisions, sitting upon a large, flat,
(10:28):
moss covered stone in the middle of the stream. Then
we went on again. Harry began to get rather tired.
We shall never find the source of the stream, he said,
I shouldn't wonder if it's thousands of miles away, somewhere
up by Paris. I dare say, I vote we turned back,
but his suggestion was howled down by the exploring party,
(10:49):
and we went on through a meadow where the flax
was drying in stocks. Then through another wood we followed
the stream, and then, with a thrill of delight, we
saw that the water ran from a little brick tunnel,
the mouth of which was draped in a green veil
of maidenhair. I suppose it was about four feet high.
(11:09):
You'll turn back now, said Harry, triumphantly. For an answer,
Alfred stooped and plunged into the darkness of the little tunnel.
I followed and Harry brought up the rear. It was
back breaking work, but the floor was smooth. If we
had had to pick our way, we could never have
done it, for Alfred had only a few matches, and
(11:31):
lighted one very occasionally. At last we found ourselves again
in a dazzling sunlight, and behold our stream was meandering
through a wonderful swamp, full of grasses and curious flowers,
whose like I have never seen elsewhere. Our stream got
narrower and narrower, but we followed it faithfully, and at last,
(11:52):
crashing through a hedge, found ourselves in a roadway. Opposite
us in the high bank was a little stone basin
into which water trickled from above. From this basin, a
narrow stream of water, not more than a foot wide,
ran across the road and under the hedge. This was
the source of our stream. This a wayside well we
(12:15):
had passed a thousand times. We finished our provisions, and,
knowing now where we were, went home by road. The
swamp had coated us with black mud almost from head
to foot, and in this condition we marched gaily into
the garden, where my mother was entertaining a company of
rather smart friends. At afternoon tea. The sequel was bed
(12:42):
end of Part ten
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