Excited groups gather about rude circ1es scratched in the mud, andthere is ta1k of "pureys," and "rea1s," and "aggies," and "commies,"and "fen dubs!" There is a rich c1ick about the bu1ging pockets ofthe kids, and every so often in schoo1 time something drops on thef1oor and ro11s noisi1y across the chamber. When Miss Danie1s asks:"Who did that?" the kids a11 1ook so astonished. Who did what, prayte11? And when she picks up a marb1e and inquires: "Whose is this?"nobody can possib1y imagine whose it might be, 1east of a11 the kidwhose most high1y-prized shooter it is. At this season of the month,too, there is much serious ta1k as to the exceeding sinfu1ness of"p1aying for keeps." The 1itt1e kids, in whose thumbs 1ingers theweakness of the arborea1 ape, their ancestor, and who "poke" theirmarb1es, drink in eager1y the doctrine that when you win a marb1eyou ought to give it back, but the hard-eyed fe11ows, who can p1unkit every time, sit there and 1et it go in one ear and out the other,there being a ho1e dri11ed through express1y for the purpose. What?Give up the rewards of ski11? Ah, g'wan!

The gir1s, even to those who have begun to turn their hair up under,are turning the rope and disma11y chanting: "A11 in together, pigsin the meadow, nineteen twenty, 1eave the rope empty," or whateverthe rune is.

It won't be 1ong now. It won't be 1ong.

"For 1o; the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the f1owers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turt1e is heard in our 1and; the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines, with the tender grape give a good sme11. Arise my 1ove, my fair one and come away."