y preferred the ills they knew. When the last mother led in the
last freshly spanked child and said as she prepared to leave: "Well, I
suppose they might as well get used to you one time as another, so
good-day, Miss, and God help you!" I felt that my woes were greater than
I could bear, for, as the door closed, several infants who had been
quite calm began to howl in sympathy with their suffering brethren. Then
the door opened again and the Corporal's bright face appeared in the
crack.

"Goodness!" she ejaculated, "this ain't the new kind of a school I
thought 'twas goin' to be!--Stop your cryin', Jimmy Maxwell, a great big
boy like you; and Levi Isaacs and Goldine Gump, I wonder you ain't
ashamed! Do you 'spose Miss Kate can do anything with such a racket? Now
don't let me hear any more o' your nonsense!--Miss Kate," she whispered,
turning to me: "I've got the whole day off for my uncle's funeral, and
as he ain't buried till three o'clock I thought I'd better run in and
see how you was gettin' on!"

"You are an angel, Corporal!" I said. "Take all the howlers down into
the yard and let them play in the sand tables till I call you."

When the queue of weeping babes had been sternly led out by the Corporal
something like peace descended upon the room but there could be no work
for the moment because the hands were too dirty. Cooeperation was
strictly Froebelian so I selected with an eagle eye several assistants
from the group--the brightest-eyed, best-tempered, and cleanest. With
their help I arranged the seats, the older children at the back tables
and the babies in the front. Classification was difficult as many of
them did not know their names, their ages, their sexes, nor their
addresses, but I had succeeded in getting a little order out of chaos by
the time the Corporal appeared again.

"They've all stopped cryin' but Hazel Golly, and she ran when I wa'n't
lookin' and got so far I couldn't ketch her; anyway she ain't no loss
for I live next door to her.--What'll we do next?"

"Scrub!" I said firmly. "I want to give them some of the easiest work,
two kinds, but we can't touch the colored cards until all the hands are
clean.--Shall we take soap and towels and all go down into the yard
where the sink is, children, and turn up our sleeves and have a nice
wash?" (Some of the infants had doubtless started from home in a
tolerable state of cleanliness but all signs had disappeared en route).

The proposition was gree