haps I ruminated they had stuck their tails into each other's bottoms, just for fun; that of course would not have been a thing to be looked at. It was a riddle which I only solved many years afterwards.
At about ten my father sent me to school. Never having had any playmates of my own age, I was as shy as a girl, and on that account mercilessly plagued and made fun of. The little boys called me "Mademoiselle," and the big ones tormented me. They used to catch me from behind, and clasping me, they began bumping their middle part against my bum, asking me how I'd like it. Thereupon all would laugh. Of course I did not understand what they were hinting at, but I felt sure that in their words there was some hidden meaning which I could not fathom. Nevertheless I used to blush scarlet, having half an intuition that they wanted to do something naughty.
After some time I got to be great friends with one of my school-fellows and he then explained to me what those horrible boys wanted to do. It was he who informed me
114
