FOR THE CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16672, 17 October 1917, Page 9

FOR THE CHILDREN.

A NORMAL TRUANT'S ADVENTURES

I am much interested in the stories of Edinburgh schools. I was at the Normal School in 1871 or 1872, h the third class, under Mr. Anderson. I remember an incident in my schoolboy life which left a permanent impression. I lived at Jock's Lodge, and the walk through the park took time, so that I was always arriving a few minutes lal e, and was continually punished for it. Now you can punish a boy once and a while, but when you do it all the tone the worm will turn; besides, schoolboys, time out of mind, have been proverbially slow while " creeping like a snail unwillingly to school," as Shakespere has it. One fine morning, a week before vacation, I made up my mind to "play the kip." So, hiding my books under some bush, I started on what proved to be a thrilling • experience. The sea drew me, and, to avoid the Portobello Road, I made my way down by Bestralrig, talcing a path that led through the Craigentinny MeadowsIt was a lovely summer morning, and, £8 I would stop to listen to a lark calling in the sky, I little dreamed of what I was to pass through befoi's I reached the shore. You will remember the railway between Portobello and Leith. -If ■ was a single line then, the line being very, close to the wall next the meadows, The"* old man who kept the gate, when he saw any of us boys crossing, would give a roar that could be heard a mile away. That he thoroughly scared as goes without saying. The last time a lot of us boys were led by an elder boy, who explained how the trick of dodging him was to he done, how we were to open the door and all rush together, and scatter, the wall on the other side being easily scaled. Here I was to face the lion in bis den alone, and I could feel my courage oozing out of my finger ends. I wan so afraid of him , that I believed I should have retraced my steps, when a thought suddenly occurred to me that, if I crossed while he was busy with the train, he would not be so likely to notice me. I had seen the engine's first fuff.of steam when it left Portobello, and when I now looked it seemed to be aboat 500 feet away. I though I could do it, ,sO. \ running down to the gate, I opened it. : This, however, took up some precious ' moments, so that, when I opened the ', door and put mr foot on the rail, the train was not more than SO feet away; • but the rail lent a kind of leverage to my jump. What happened n>.»xt was so 5 marvellous that it will seem almost inI credible. Before I had landed on the

other side the rush of air caused by the train acted as a kind of cuslron, caught

me as high as the top of the locomotive, carried me 25 to 30 feet, end whirled me round about. Here is tho extraordinary part. I seemed to be held by an invisible power, suspended in the air, and told to look, and there I could see the boiler of the engino as plain as if I were standing on the footplate, and the engine was stationary. I seemed paraylsed. It seemed to last about, two seconds, and, just as I was going to cry 'out in terror, the vision went out like a snapshot, and there was a blur as the carriages passed a couple of inches before my face, and I landed without as much as i scratch. The old man was beside me. but after going through such an experience, I should not have been afraid of the devil himself. The old man was very <-hitc, an.l, trembling like a leaf, he sain, "Eh, laddie! that was a narrow escape." His voice was very low an he said these words. I had a half-hour conversation with him as he stood there with his flag in his hand, and I found him a grand old man, and not the ogre we boys had taken hi;n to be; but I did not tell him, and he never knew, that it was his ternb.e voice that nearly ended my career then and there. , . . „ One would think I had enough adventures for one day-but when I got down to the shore I found the tide full m and ; the temptation to have a bathe was irresistible, but I had no sooner stepped into I the sea when I was earned into deep ! water in a moment by an undertow so strong as simply to astonish me. If I had not been a good swimmer that would have been the end of my career, as there was no help anywhere in sight. I kept swimming for the shore, and a biff wave coming along lifted me and' carried me like a straw towards the beach, when, holding on to a submerged boulder, ; I was able to scramble out of" the danger. If I had not been able to reach the shore. I had made up my mind to swim to m upright post, with a kind of box' like a dove-cot on top, said, to be used duckhunters, and stay there till the tide went out, but it was. ability to'swim that saved mc, and I 1 would.recommend all yepg boysi to learn: to swim,. as,*; they never ; know when- they may need |t;4-ii"j Edifr 'burgh Schoolboy, Chicago, i-> -^