Miss Buss and Miss Beal were utterly delightful.  Between them they taught children ranging from four years of age up to twelve.  My recollection of them is that they were infinitely patient with their little charges and under their gentle tutelage I mastered the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic.  One thing about them that really sticks in my mind, they often took us for nature rambles in the surrounding woods, fields and orchards, the children walking along in pairs, hand in hand.  It was here I first became an anglonemophilist and developed my love of the English countryside; although I rarely see it these days, I love it more than ever.
It was here, in the village school at Statham that I first became aware of the existence of my own Promised Land.  I can now recall only two of the pictures from the schoolroom walls.  There was a picture of the Good Samaritan assisting the victim of the robbery, in the background, the shadowy robbers making good their escape; I had many nightmares inspired by this picture.  My father would come to console me and assure me no robbers were coming to Statham to break into our little house.  The other picture was a map of the world with large swathes of it painted in rose hue to indicate the full extent of that glorious empire on which the sun never set.  In the bottom right hand corner was that large rose tinted island, the third side of the triangle of my national identity, the island Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queiros had named “La Australia del Espiritu Santo†â€" the southern land of the Holy Ghost â€" Australia.
The above is an excerpt from the ebook “The Voyage to the Promised Land†by Will Keyes Byrne (my quasi-autobiography).  You may download a FREE sample from Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/bovf37k [1]
No Kindle? No worries!
This ebook is published in Kindle format but if you do not have one don’t worry you can download a FREE app to read it on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Smartphone or Android Tablet.  I don’t actually own a Kindle myself; I read Kindle format on my iPhone. I love it â€" I can read on the bus, train, or while waiting for… anything.
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