In the infant schools, which were kept by women, of course
the discipline was not expected to be so severe. The schoolmistress
in those days wore what was called a busk--a flat piece of
lancewood, hornbeam, or some other like tough and elastic
wood, thrust into a sort of pocket or sheath in her dress,
which came up almost to the chin and came down below the waist.
This was intended to preserve the straightness and grace of
her figure. When the small boy misbehaved, the schoolma'am
would unsheath this weapon, and for some time thereafter the
culprit found sitting down exceedingly uncomfortable.
Sometimes the sole of the schoolmistress's slipper answered
the same purpose, and sometimes a stick from some neighboring
birch-tree. It all came to pretty much the same thing in
the end. The schoolmistress knew well how to accomplish her
purpose. There was a diversity of gifts but the same spirit.
We were put to school much earlier than children are now
and were more advanced in our studies on the whole. I began
to study Latin on my sixth birthday. When I was nine years
old I was studying Greek, and had read several books of Virgil.
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