`` Ready in one way , but not in another . That hard work is no preparation for four years of still harder study . It has cost you these round shoulders , many a headache , and consumed hours when you had far better have been on the river or in the fields . I can not have you break down , as so many boys do , or pull through at the cost of ill-health afterward . Eighteen is young enough to begin the steady grind , if you have a strong constitution to keep pace with the eager mind . Sixteen is too young to send even my good boy out into the world , just when he most needs his mother 's care to help him be the man she hopes to see him . '' Mrs. Minot laid her hand on his shoulder as she spoke , looking so fond and proud that it was impossible to rebel , though some of his most cherished plans were spoilt . `` Other fellows go at my age , and I was rather pleased to be ready at sixteen , '' he began . But she added , quickly , -- `` They go , but how do they come out ? Many lose health of body , and many what is more precious still , moral strength , because too young and ignorant to withstand temptations of all sorts . The best part of education does not come from books , and the good principles I value more than either of the other things are to be carefully watched over till firmly fixed ; then you may face the world , and come to no real harm . Trust me , dear , I do it for your sake ; so bear the disappointment bravely , and in the end I think you will say I 'm right . '' `` I 'll do my best ; but I do n't see what is to become of us if we do n't go to school . You will get tired of it first , '' said Frank , trying to set a good example to the others , who were looking much impressed and interested . `` No danger of that , for I never sent my children to school to get rid of them , and now that they are old enough to be companions , I want them at home more than ever . There are to be some lessons , however , for busy minds must be fed , but not crammed ; so you boys will go and recite at certain hours such things as seem most important . But there is to be no studying at night , no shutting up all the best hours of the day , no hurry and fret of getting on fast , or skimming over the surface of many studies without learning any thoroughly . '' `` So I say ! '' cried Jack , pleased with the new idea , for he never did love books . `` I do hate to be driven so I do n't half understand , because there is no time to have things explained .
School is good fun as far as play goes ; but I do n't XXXXX the sense of making a fellow learn eighty questions in geography one day , and forget them the next .
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