It is a most attractive spot, standing demurely isolated
amidst its encircling fringe of fine elms, and jealously guarded
by a high wooden palisade, No unauthorised person can penetrate
into "Ducker"; in summer-time it is the boys' own domain. The long
tiled pool stretches in sweeping curves for 250 feet under the
great elms, a splashing fountain at one end, its far extremity gay
with lawns and flower-beds. I can conceive of nothing more typical
of the exuberant joie-de-vivre of youth than the sight of Ducker
on a warm summer evening when the place is ringing with the shouts
and laughter of some four hundred boys, all naked as when they
were born, swimming, diving, ducking each other, splashing and
rollicking in the water, whilst others stretched out on the grass,
puris naturalibus, are basking in the sun, or regaling themselves
on buns and cocoa. The whole place is vibrant with the intense
zest the young feel in life, and with the whole-hearted powers of
enjoyment of boyhood. A school-song set to a captivating waltz-
lilt record the charms of Ducker.
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