Explore "Mary Olivier: a Life" by May Sinclair on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
You had to endure hardness after you were nine. You learnt out of Mrs. Markham's "History of England," and you were not allowed to read the conversations between Richard and Mary and Mrs. Markham because they made history too amusing and too easy to remember. For the same reason you translated only the tight, dismal pages of your French Reader, and anything that looked like an interesting story was forbidden. You were to learn for the sake of the lesson and not for pleasure's sake. Mamma said you had enough pleasure in playtime. She put it to your honour not to skip on to the more exciting parts.
When you had finished Mrs. Markham you began Dr. Smith's "History of England. " Honour was safe with Dr. Smith. He made history very hard to read and impossible to remember.