not wanted
by the superintendent, is to be spent in study. You will see then, when
the last hour arrives, that all the scholars go in various directions,
to the meetings of their respective sections. Here they remain as long
as the superintendent retains them. Sometimes they adjourn almost
immediately; perhaps after having simply attended to the distribution of
pens for the next day; at other times they remain during the hour,
attending to such exercises as the superintendent may plan. The design,
however, and nature of this whole arrangement, I shall explain more
fully in another place.

_Close of the School._

As the end of the hour approaches, five minutes notice is given by the
bell, and when the time arrives, the study card is half dropped for a
moment before the closing exercises. When it rises again the room is
restored to silence and order. We then sing a verse or two of a hymn,
and commend ourselves to God's protection in a short prayer. As the
scholars raise their heads from the posture of reverence they have
assumed, they pause a moment till the regulator lets down the study
card, and the sound of its bell is the signal that our duties at school
are ended for the day.

III. INSTRUCTION AND SUPERVISION OF PUPILS.

For the instruction of the pupils, the school is divided into _classes_,
and for their general supervision, into _sections_, as has been
intimated in the preceding chapter. The head of a _class_ is called a
_Teacher_, and the head of a _section_ a _Superintendent_. The same
individual may be both the Teacher of a class, and the Superintendent of
a section. The two offices are, however, entirely distinct in their
nature and design. As you will perceive by recalling to mind the daily
order of exercises, the classes meet and recite during the first three
hours of the school, and the sections assemble on the fourth and last.
We shall give each a separate description.

1. CLASSES.

The object of the division into classes is _instruction_. Whenever it is
desirable that several individuals should pursue a particular study, a
list of their names is made out, a book selected, a time for recitation
assigned, a teacher appointed, and the exercises begin. In this way a
large number of classes have been formed, and the wishes of parents or
the opinion of the Principal, and in many cases that of the pupil,
determines how many and what shall be assigned to each individual. A
list of these classes, wit