Front Matter

Author's Preface

This book is particularly dedicated to boys of the elementary schools, between the ages of nine to thirteen years, and it might be called, "History of a School Year, by a pupil of the Third Grade of a Public School in Italy."

By saying that it was written by a pupil of the third grade, I do not wish to convey the idea that it was written by him entire, or as it appears in print. The boy noted down successively in a copy-book, what he knew, what he saw, what he felt, thought and experienced inside and outside the school; and his father, at the end of the year, wrote these pages from those notes, endeavoring not to alter the thought but to preserve, as near as possible, even the words used by his son. The latter, however, four years later, having entered the High School, re-read the manuscript and added to it something of his own, drawing upon his memory, still fresh, of the people and things.

Now read this book, boys. I hope it will please you and do you some good.