阅读理解解读。
I still remember—my hands and my fingers still remember—what used to lie in store for us on our return to school from the holidays. The trees in the school yard would be in full leaf again and the old leaves would be lying around like a muddy sea of leaves.
“Get that all swept up！” the headmaster would tell us. “I want the whole place cleaned up, at once！” There was enough work there, to last over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hands, our fingers, our nails. “Now see that it's done properly, and be quick about it，” the headmaster would say to the older pupils, “or you'll have to answer for it！”
So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peanuts about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to beat us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe(贿赂) the older boys with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meal.
