Showing a group of boys at play in front of a rural schoolhouse, this is Homer's best-known genre painting. The composition is essentially based upon a chalk drawing now in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York. Homer painted two versions of the subject, both dated 1872. The other, in the collection of the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, is larger and has an additional figure and a mountainous background. This version appears to be a detailed oil study for that picture. At one time, the picture had a mountainous background like the larger version that was overpainted by the artist. Infrared photography has also revealed a number of other changes that the artist made during its execution.

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