Transcriber's note: Greek transliterations added.
It is not a pleasant epoch in one's life, the first forty-eight hours ata large public school. I have known strong-minded men of mature ageconfess that they never thought of it without a shiver. I don't countthe home-sickness, which perhaps only affects seriously the mostinnocent of débutants, but there are other thousand and one littleannoyances which make up a great trouble. If there were nothing else,for instance, the unceasing query, "What's your name?" makes you feelthe possession of a cognomen at all a serious burden and bar toadvancement in life.
A dull afternoon toward the end of October; the sky a neutral tint ofashy gray; a bitter northeast wind tearing down the yellow leaves fromthe old elms that girdle the school-close of ——; a foul, clingingpaste of mud and trampled grass-blades under foot, that chilled you tothe marrow; a mob of two