t tapped the tuning fork briskly on the edge of the
stand, put it to his ear, and listened as he gazed thoughtfully
downward.

"Do! Me! Sol! Do!" he sang in staccato notes, nodding the sparse gray
foretop jerkily with each note as bass, alto, tenor, soprano took up
their pitch. Thereupon he seized the pointer, a long switch kept
conveniently near in the corner, and indicated the first note of the
staff.

Scarcely had the pointer tapped a full measure before the school
realized they were singing by note an old familiar tune and with that
they burst forth with the words:

Oh! have you heard Geography sung?
For if you've not it's on my tongue;
First the capitals one by one,
United States, Washington.

They changed the meter only slightly as they boomed forth:

Augusta, Maine, on the Kennebec River,
Concord, New Hampshire, on the Merrimac.

Of course they knew it was the Geography Song from their McGuffey Reader
which the singing master had set to tune. To make sure they had not
forgotten the McGuffey piece he halted the singing and directed that
they speak over the piece together, which they did with a verve:

Oh! have you heard Geography sung?
For if you've not, it's on my tongue;
About the earth in air that's hung.
All covered with green, little islands.
Oceans, gulfs, and bays, and seas;
Channels and straits, sounds, if you please;
Great archipelagoes, too, and all these
Are covered with green, little islands.

Philomel Whiffet sometimes had his school do unexpected things that way.
And now once again they went on with the geography singing lesson,
putting in the names of places and rivers to the tune.

Far and wide traveled Philomel Whiffet's singing school, wafted by note
from freedom's shore to African wilds. They knew it all by heart. On and
on they sang, and Drusilla Osborn's voice led all the rest:

Bolivia capital Suc-re
Largest city in South America

Mexico is Mexico
Government Republican

Around the world and back again, nor did they stop until they again went
through all the States, finishing with a lusty:

New Hampshire's capital is for a fact
Concord on the Merrimac.

Silen