The boy loves to wake up to see the summer mornings. The sound of the birds singing and the huntsman’s horn are both pleasant. It seemed to him as if the skylark was singing with him. All of this was such a sweet company to him.
The school, however, took away with it the joy that summer mornings carried. The little boys spent their days in utter despair under the threat of the teacher’s presence. He would spend his days in anxiety, deriving pleasure neither in books nor in lectures.
The boy ponders upon the fact that freedom is so necessary during childhood. A bird, who is put in a cage cannot sing for it derives joy from his freedom. Similarly, a child like a caged bird be happy by living in constant fear.
The boy addresses his parents trying to explain them that just like spring is meaningless without flowers, similarly childhood is meaningless without freedom. By nipping the buds before they blossom they would make the world an unpleasant place. In such conditions how would they derive happiness associated with summer and spring. The joy of childhood makes a person remember that phase for a life time. Depriving the children of that joy would be to doom them to a life of everlasting sorrow.