Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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I 1 .I - f if 5 - - ., ,F -L - i - ' ' :' 1 Jim, for answer, began to pack his medicine kit. The girl made some tea and packed a few provisions while Jim was getting his canoe and pack ready. The way was rough and the canoe was heavily laden, but they made the return trip in a day and a half. They found the man had grown worse instead of better, but they dosed him well and sweated most of the fever out of him. But, even so, the path to recovery was long and tedious. The precarious condition of the father necessitated the protracted stay of Jim at the girl's home. As the days passed by, the girl and Jim saw more and more of each other. They were married in the spring by a travelling mission- ary who had forgotten most of the vows, but made them swear to be true to each other. Yes, old Jim remembered well those happy days. She had left him nigh unto eight years ago, but he could see her very plainly,-she seemed to be beckoning to him. He could even hear her voice, Come, Jim, come. The fire merrily jumped and crackled, and a log fell with a heavy thud to the bottom of the fire place, but old Jim never stirred. They found him, his book The Pioneer's Trail open on his knees. He was resting quietly, a happy smile on his face-dead. Mr. McCulley- Jay, what is the Order of the Bath. Jay- Pa first, then Ma and then us kids. CPretty wet, what '?J 31

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Y, .gg I: .rr -4. Q . . 5 2 wi l l T LD Jim Donague leaned back in QD his chair and gazed into the fire. His thoughts wandered back, back over the years since he had come to Canada. He had been twenty five, then, in 1873, with all the hope of youth in his heart. He remembered that he had come out to join his uncle, who was a trapper in the great Canadian woods. His uncle had been there to meet him when he had arrived from the Old Country. He had gone with his uncle, by coach, horse and canoe back to the trading post, where his uncle had outfitted him and made him ready to stand the coldest weather imaginable. Oh yes! He-remembered how his uncle had looked, paddling his canoe through the still green waters of the inland lakes. They had worked together for almost two years when one day his uncle had disappeared and was never seen again. A skeleton was found years later, although this may have had no connection with the vanished man. The skull was crushed in, though by what means, bear or falling tree, was never known. From that day on, Jim had become a different man, going about his work silently and morosely. His uncle had been the only person he had seen for sometimes two months at a stretch. There was no one for him to talk to and he began to long for human companionship. He was considering packing his belongings and setting out for the settlement. In fact he had almost decided to leave, and had gone to bed with that thought in his mind. All at once, however, he was awakened by many, oft repeated knocks on his door. Springing from his bed he pulled on his shoes and advanced to the door. Grasping the handle he pulled it roughly forward, rather angry at being awakened. He could remember the sight even now. The wild angry waves of the lake, the small canoe beached on the hard sand, and, standing on his doorstep, a young girl dressed in water-splashed garments, hold- ing a small child by the hand. The girl was standing looking up at him. Opening the door wide he beckoned her in and set about building a fire by which she could dry herself and the child. The hospitality of the north forbade him asking questions before his guest was made comfort- able. However, before he could build a fire, she started to talk, fast and incoherently. The man therefore stopped his work to listen to her. The gist of her story was this: Her father had fallen sick of diphtheria. Her mother had remained behind to wait on the sick man and she and her young brother had set off to get aid from the nearest settler. They had travelled sixty miles in two days and now they were asking his assistance. U

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V' J- -Y - , - V- .-': --- Y. X 4 fl Tl-if ENGLISH DUIBLIC SCHDOLS IA CIQITICAI. ANALYSISI HDUBLIC Schoolsg Their Failure and Their Reform is the title of a recent book by L. B. Pekin, who has been a master of several English Public Schools. In Canada we call them Boarding Schools or Preparatory Schools. Mr. Pekin has written by far the best existing criticism of the system, as he has seen it working in England, and while the book is concerned with a problem that is specifically and distinctly English, the system has been imitated and efforts made to transplant it in the British Colonies. A review of Mr. Pekin's book by Mr. Raymond Mortimer, which appeared in the New Statesman and Nation, has aroused unusual interest among English schoolmasters. Since it appeared the office of that weekly has been submerged with lettersg some protesting and insisting that nothing much is wrong and others bringing evidence to substantiate Mr. Mortimer's and Mr. Pekin's statements. At Pickering College we have been particularly interested in the controversy, because our policy has been opposed to follow- ing the English system, in favour of building up a distinctively Canadian type of organization. Mr. Pekin refers to a school with similar ideals that was founded twenty-five years ago by Gustav Wynphers in a remote corner of the Thuringian forest in the East of Germany and there are a sufficient number of experiments being made in other countries, which at least prove that the tra- ditional school methods can be improved upon. A vigorous attack is made by both Mr. Pekin and Mr. Mor- timer on the brutalizing effect of flogging, corporal punishment and the prefect system. Mr. Mortimer says, To ill-treat an artisan's child is risky business, but no representative of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children even ventures into the precints of Harrow, Marlborough or Sherborne. l The privileged classes in England almost unani- mously connive at the brutal treatment of their children. Intelligent men whose schooldays were an agony, gaily send their sons to the same or- deal. Things must have changed since my day the father says hopefully and off the little victim goes. For at least ten percent of the boys, life at an English Public School is not worth living and some of them never recover. The majority of boys are cramped, discouraged and above all, bored. The object of the system Y 312