I dreamed of Mr. Percy and saw him grasp my hand and heard him say, “God bless you, my boy!” and then I was carried away through the air up into some high mountain and left in a barren, desolate place. The fright awoke me all trembling. I saw that it was morning, the sun shining in our window. How well I remember that room! and would not four long years in it make me remember it forever? I recall it as on that first morning. Four bare walls, a ceiling and floor, with nothing to break the monotony but forty cots standing in rows as straight as the walls, and the square windows. I have often wondered, when pictures are so cheap, that they did not put a few on the walls; when nature outside showed the intention of God to make the world beautiful, that they did not give us a few flowers in cheap earthen pots, if nothing better, to relieve the everlasting squareness and barrenness. Compel a man to live in a hovel like a stable, he may not turn into a horse, but the chances are that he will not be near the man he might have been had his surroundings been such as to develop his sense of beauty. How much more should a boy be educated by his sight and senses, be taught by his daily surroundings? There was no privacy whatever. I well remember months afterward when out walking with one of the boys, a little timid, refined lad, who told me that before leaving home his mother had made him promise to kneel by his bed every night and say his prayers. “But,” said he, “how can I do it with all the boys looking at me?” I knew nothing about praying myself, but I could feel for a boy who thought he ought to pray and was afraid to do so. A man might be brave in battle, but I think it would require more courage to kneel by his bed and say his prayers before a lot of scoffing men. CHAPTER VI. Everything about the place was solid and substantial. The walls were square and bare, the floors of wood, unblessed with any kind of cloth, on which our feet ached in the winter time; the tables and benches in the halls were of the hardest wood, our plates, cups and dishes all of metal, our food in abundance, the few kinds they were, but badly cooked and served by weekly routine. Even the strongest appetite must be appalled by knowing three months or a year beforehand, that on certain days at a particular minute, such and such food would invariably appear. A person’s appetite likes to be surprised at times and is pleased with variety.