“Let us take a peep into the old-fashioned schoolroom. It is a large, dingy room, with a sanded floor, and is lighted by windows that turn on hinges, and have diamond-shaped panes of glass. The scholars sit on long benches, with their desks before them. At the end of the room is a great fireplace, so large that there is room enough for three or four boys to stand in each of the chimney corners. See what logs of wood have been rolled into the fireplace, and what a broad, bright blaze goes leaping up the chimney! Do you see the old master, looking very stern, with a black cap on his head and a white beard reaching to his girdle? What boy would dare to play or whisper, or even glance aside from his book while the master is on the lookout?” — Adapted from NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE