Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/280

250 He needed no urging to return to his pleasant lessons with Bess; but the others, who had so  many more resources, were by no means reconciled, and the first Monday in September saw  them walking slowly, very slowly, towards the  schoolhouse, with their books in their hands  and rage in their hearts.

All of us who have been boys know how hard it is to leave all the frolics and idle enjoyment of the long vacation, to sit for five hours  a day in a close room, amid the buzz of voices, and, with warm, sticky hands, turn over the  leaves of the books that never before seemed  half so prosy and dull—since last September. How all the out-door sounds that come in at the open windows, the notes of the birds, the hum  of the passing voices, the distant bark of our  own Nep Or Rover, even the whir of a mowing  machine in the next yard, tempt us to throw  aside the lessons, and, braving the whipping  that we know must certainly follow, to run out  at the door, down the stairs, and into the clear  yellow sunshine that was surely created for  boys to enjoy themselves in! And how all the memories of the summer fun will come into our