There were a couple of forms, notched and cut and inked all over; a small deal desk perched on four legs, at which no doubt the master sat; a few dog's-eared books upon a high shelf; and beside them a motley collection of peg-tops, balls, kites, fishing-lines, marbles, half-eaten apples, and other confiscated property of idle urchins.
Displayed on hooks upon the wall in all their terrors, were the cane and ruler; and near them, on a small shelf of its own, the dunce's cap, made of old newspapers and decorated with glaring wafers of the largest size.

But, the great ornaments of the walls were certain moral sentences fairly copied in good round text, and well-worked sums in simple addition and multiplication, evidently achieved by the same hand, which were plentifully pasted all round the room: for the double purpose, as it seemed, of bearing testimony to the excellence of the school, and kindling a worthy emulation in the bosoms of the scholars.
'Yes,' said the old schoolmaster, observing that her attention was caught by these latter specimens.

'That's beautiful writing, my dear.' 'Very, Sir,' replied the child modestly, 'is it yours ?' 'Mine!' he returned, taking out his spectacles and putting them on, to have a better view of the triumphs so dear to his heart.

'I couldn't write like that, now-a-days.

No.