India, Aug. 8 -- * "Yesterday was a bad day.," a 12-year-old from Lombardia in Italy writes, during World War 1. "Today the sun barely shines and although it's just one o'clock there have already been three alarms. I cannot understand how I'm supposed to live this way."

* In 1824, in the city of Craon in France, a middle-school girl writes to her mother, asking to be allowed to continue her education. "My Dear Mama," she says, in careful, cursive lines. "I received with pleasure the letter that you did me the honour of writing... Your silence began to cause me worry. I feared that you were ill; it is very unlike you to let pass such a long time without writing to me. I beg you to give me another six more months. I beg you, Dear Mama."

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