age produces quite a fair proportion of really handsome
children, besides those of several of the old families, who are wont to
be of exceptional beauty. Unhappily, before the school-years are over,
the fineness usually begins to disappear, being spoilt, I suspect,
partly by the privations of the home-life and partly by another cause,
of which I will speak by-and-by.

I think, further--but it is only a vague impression, not worth much
attention--that as regards physique the girls are as a rule more
thriving and comely than the boys. The latter appear very apt to become
knottled and hard, and there is a want of generosity in their growth, as
though they received less care than the girls, and were more used to
going hungry, and being cold and wet. But if my impression is right,
there are two points to be noticed in further explanation of it. The
first point relates to the early age at which the boys begin to be
useful at work. It has been already told how soon they are set to earn a
little money out of school-hours; but even before that stage is reached
the little boys have to make themselves handy. On the Saturday holiday
it is no uncommon thing to see a boy of eight or nine pushing up the
hill a little truck loaded with coal or coke, which he has been sent to
buy at the railway yard. Smaller ones still are sent to the shops, and
not seldom they are really overloaded. Thus at an age when boys in
better circumstances are hardly allowed out alone, these village
children practise perforce a considerable self-reliance, and become
acquainted with the fatigue of labour. Some little chaps, as they go
about their duties--leading lesser brothers by the hand perhaps, or
perhaps dealing very sternly with them, and making them "keep up"
without help--have unawares the manner of responsible men.

That is one point which may help to account for the apparent physical
disparity between the boys and girls of the village. The other is a
subject of remark amongst all who know the school-children. There is no
doubt about it; whether the girls are comelier of growth than the boys
or not, they are in behaviour so much more civilized that one might
almost suppose them to come from different homes. To my mind this might
be sufficiently explained by the fact that they are usually spared those
burdensome errands and responsibilities which are thrust so soon upon
their brothers; but the schoolmaster has another explanation, which
probably contain