School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn’t take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.

It was wonderful to sit with her head on my shoulder for hours and feel as I always have, even now, closer to her than to any other human being. And I wouldn’t mind a bit if in a few years you and I could snuggle up together under a stone in some old graveyard here. That is really a happy thought and not melancholy at all.