.

Miss Grant then strikes up a lively tune to the words,--

"This is the way we wash our face,
This is the way we wash our face,
This is the way we wash our face,
So early in the morning,"--

each little hand is vigorously employed in rubbing the face, as they
merrily follow each other around the circle. As soon as they finish one
verse, they stop a moment, to avoid being made dizzy, and then begin
again:--

"This is the way we comb our hair,
This is the way we comb our hair,
This is the way we comb our hair,
So early in the morning.

"This is the way we brush our teeth,
This is the way we brush our teeth,
This is the way we brush our teeth,
So early in the morning.

"This is the way we clean our nails,
This is the way we clean our nails,
This is the way we clean our nails,
So early in the morning."

After this marching and singing, the children return to their seats to
prepare a lesson in geography, which they recite standing near the
globe, the teacher pointing out the places upon it.

Recess and the various sports recommended by the teacher follow, and
then come arithmetic and the numeral frame. This is a wooden frame
about a foot square, with twelve stout wires passing from one side to
the other. Strung on each of these wires are twelve round stones, about
the size of marbles. With this frame Miss Grant taught her little
scholars to add, subtract, and multiply numbers, in the same manner that
Mrs. Gray had taught her little pupils with marbles.

At the close of the morning session, the children marched in the circle
again, singing five times five are twenty-five, and five times six are
thirty, to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

In the afternoon, the exercises were quite as varied. The lessons mostly
being committed in the morning, the children were allowed to tell
stories, which the teacher wrote for them on the blackboard,--or they
recited hymns and verses they had learned; sung, marched, and listened
to the instructions of their teacher.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER III.

THE NEW SCHOLAR.

IN a house near the one where Miss Grant boarded was a little girl whose
name was Hitty Moran. Her real name was Mehitable, but her mother and
all her companions called her Hitty. She belonged t