Schooldays

Abstract

W hen Willie was nine his father and mother moved from Fitzroy Road to a house in West Kensington, 14 Edith Villas, near Burne-Jones at North End. Fetched from Sligo, Willie was brought, not to Edith Villas, but to Burnham Beeches, where his father had gone to paint in company with some friends — one of them Farrar, the American landscape artist. The men were out all day, but Willie found delightful adventures alone, wandering about the country after moths and butterflies, or dawdling round ponds where he could imagine ships going in and out and think of Sligo and of the fine ship he would launch when he grew up. Sometimes he would forget to return to the lodging for the midday meal, and often, with so much to entrance, fail to fix his mind on the lesson which his father set him before going out and heard in the evenings.