Sultan is so great, so good, so omnipotent. I
dared not laugh at the child's earnestness, though I had some trouble
in controlling my risibles, the aforesaid young officer not having
a reputation for excessive holiness.

Long before reaching the Moro school for boys, which we next visited,
we could hear the voices of the pupils in a treble uproar, for they
all and individually studied aloud, rocking back and forth in their
seats, so that at first the sound was an unintelligible jumble,
which finally resolved itself into bits of the multiplication table,
detached letters of the alphabet, and pages from geography or history.

As we entered the door, the scholars looked up expectantly from their
work, glad of an interruption, and at a sign from one of the Mohammedan
teachers, they sprang to their feet with the uniformity of a machine,
fairly yelling their "Good morning" at us. Fine little lads they were,
all being of Moro, Chinese, or Filipino stock, with here and there
a fascinating combination of the three nationalities in one.

Of course the children were put through their paces for us, and,
as each recited in turn, he would preface his remarks by a profound
bow and a little speech, the words of these formal introductions
being exactly alike, as if ground out by a phonograph, and beginning
"Ladies and Gentlemen," till I wondered if perhaps the children saw
us double. They were not in the least abashed, these little savages,
and in their quaint English recited selections from Eugene Field
and James Whitcomb Riley, some of these efforts being in dialect,
which must have been a trifle puzzling to one not acquainted with
the vagaries of the language.

Finally an arithmetical problem on the board caught my eye, and was
surreptitiously transferred to my note-book for future reference. It
ran something like this: "A poor old lady owns one thousand cents. She
loses 189 of the cents. How many left has she?" The master, observing
my interest in the financial difficulties of the aged and destitute
lady, had the little slates brought up that I might see there were
still 811 pennies to her credit. I inquired of some of the boys how
much 811 pennies put into dollars and cents would amount to, but all
were so visibly embarrassed that I, remembering my own mathematically
tortured childhood, desisted before the schoolmaster could hear. On
leaving, the boys again jumped up as one, and shouted their unanimous
"Good-bye," and long afte