e been)
desired done. I can well believe that the Orphanage justified itself
from a utilitarian standpoint. I believe it paid well as a farm. And I
do not see how any one could have extracted more in charity from the
inhabitants of the district (and, too, from the orphans) than the
sisters did. Oh, I give them all credit for their competence and
efficiency.

Indeed, I find it little less than wonderful to recall the manner in
which the Sister-in-charge and her three assistants maintained the
perfect discipline of that Orphanage, with never an appeal for the
assistance of masculine brute force. The Australian-born boy is not by
any means the most docile or meek of his species; and, occasionally, a
newly arrived orphan would assert himself after the universal urchin
fashion. Such minor outbreaks were never allowed to produce scenes,
however. We had no intimidating executions; no birch-rods in pickle,
or anything of that sort. Sister Agatha and Sister Catharine were
given rather to slappings, pinchings, and the vicious tweaking of
ears. I have seen Sister Agatha kick an orphan's bare toes, or his
bare shin, with the toe of her boot; and at such times she could throw
a formidable amount of venom into two or three words, spoken rather
below than above the ordinary conversational pitch of her voice. But
ceremonial floggings were unknown at St. Peter's. And indeed I can
recall no breaches of discipline which seemed to demand any such
punishment.

The most usual form of punishment was the docking of a meal. We fed at
three long tables, and sat upon forms. Meals were a fairly serious
business, because we were always hungry. A boy who was reported to the
Sister-in-charge, say, for some neglect of his work, would have his
dinner stopped. In that case it would be his unhappy lot to stand with
his hands penitentially crossed upon his chest, behind his place at
table, while the rest of us wolfed our meal. By a refinement which, at
the time, seemed to me very uncalled for, the culprit had to say
grace, before and after the meal, aloud and separately from the rest
of us.

There were occasions upon which we were one and all found wanting.
Eggs had been stolen, work had been badly done; something had happened
for which no one culprit could be singled out, and all were held to
blame. Upon such an occasion we were made to lay the dinner-tables as
usual, and to wait upon the sisters at their own table, and for the
rest of an hour to st