Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings

590 TALKS ON (< AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "

countries which in that respectrhavc attained civilisa-
tipn. I believe that Japan is one of them- I know
from my own experience that Jtaly <s another. I
lived for some considerable time in one of the Italian
cities, in a house which overlooked the grounds of a
great school, and I watched with very great interest
thS relations between the masters and the boys. The
Italian nature is a little different from ours; it is
much more excitable ; but I am bound to say that I
was very well pleased with the thing on the whole.
Because of their nature the masters did not keep
discipline in the same way as we do. The boys would
be all drawn up in line and at any moment one of
them would suddenly leave the ranks and rush up to
the master. He would sei-ze upon hcs arm and say
something to him in quite an impassioned way. The
master would smile and pat his head, evidently grant-
ing his request or saying something about it- They
were all on the most perfectly friendly terms. They
do not enforce our own half military ideas. You sec
the boys were much more excitable and, as a general
rule, more noisy than our boys would be. There was
distinctly less semi-military order, but they were all
exceptionally friendly. I noticed that, whenever
these boys met their master in the street, they im-
mediately sprang upon him and pulled him about and
were the very greatest of friends out of school hours
too. That is a very good sign, because the man
whom children love is always a good man at heart;