The  drift  for  athletics  had  swept  over  the  Latin
School  also,  and  the  square  yard  behind  the  school,
which  seemed  immense,  but  could  have  been  only
thirty  feet  in  each  measurement,  was  fitted  up  with
a  vaulting-horse,  parallel  bars,  and  so  on.  But,
as  the  fad  wore  itself  out,  the  boys  were  permitted
to  destroy  these  things ;  and  when  I  entered  the
school,  in  1831,  there  were  only  the  vaulting-horse
and,  perhaps,  a  pair  of  parallel  bars  left;  and
these  gradually  disappeared  from  the  curriculum.
This  play-ground  was  the  only  play-ground  of  the
school,  and  was  accessible  only  to  the  boys  in  the
lowest  room.  Upstairs  we  were  confined  to  a
very  limited  passage-way,  I  might  call  it,  at  recess,
in  which  we  used  to  play  "  tug-of-war,"  though  we
never  called  it  by  that  name.  Practically  the
recesses  were  very  short,  for  the  simple  reason
that  they  did  not  like  to  have  us  in  the  street.
Earlier  than  this,  I  can  remember,  when  I  was
only  four  or  five  years  old,  that  we  looked  from
the  windows  of  the  house  out  upon  the  street,  to
see  the  sports  of  the  boys  there,  when  rather  more
liberty  was  granted  them.  Among  these  sports  I
remember  distinctly  seeing  the  older  boys  kick
their  pails  to  pieces  at  the  end  of  the  school  term.
They  would  subscribe   for  pails  in  which  to  keep


32  A  New  England  Boyhood

the  water  which  they  wanted  to  drink  in  the  hot
days ;  and  when  the  term  was  done,  not  wishing  to
leave  the  pails  to  their  successors,  they  kicked
them  about  the  sidewalk  and  street  until  they
were  ruined.
