[{"node":{"title":"Hanna201","Collections":"Part Three","Contributor":"Linen Hall Library","Coverage":"1951","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Thursday, April 7, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Hanna201","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"School, Children","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/hanna201","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Hanna201_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeff194\n\nAt noon the school broke for lunch, which, for\nmost of the scholars was the large buttered farl of\nwheaten or soda bread that they carried with their books\nin their oilcloth satchels. Master Herriot left the\nschool to walk to his lodgings in a neighbouring\nfarmer\u2019s, and as he walked through the shouting,\ntumbling children he would play fully ruffle a little\ngirl's hair here, or there hook the ball of a boy's\ntoe and dribble it skilfully up the road followed by\na rabble of gleeful boys shouting 'Hi, Mester! Here,\nMester!'\n\nHalf-an-hour later he would come down the road\nagain and this was a signal for the children to make\ntheir way into the close before the school and form\ninto a straggling line. Then to the muted beat of a\nbell they would stamp noisily into their classes for\nthe second period of the day.\n\nAt half-past two the 'infants' were released\nfrom school to be followed, by the older children,\nRavara School, catering as it did for a large area of\nthe surrounding countryside, contained scholars from\na number of townlands, and these gathered in neighbourly\nclans and parted from each other amid shouts and counter-\nsnouts until they lost sight of each other on the white\ndusty road.\n\nAmong the children who turned down into the heart\nof Ravara townland was a tail fairheaded boy of about\ntwelve who was among the leaders of those who went\nrambling off the road on various escapades, hunting\ngoats in the paddocks, or stealing beans and sweet red\ncarrots from the fields. Now and then he would throw\na word or two to a girl about five years his junior,\nand from the way in which he slewed her satchel round\nand rummaged in it for a ball, it was plain that there\n","Type":"Text"}}]