LS GET UP AT SIX AND GO
DOWN TO PRACTICE THEY DON'T DRESS AND HAVE THEIR BATH THEY JUST PUT ON
THEIR DRESSING GOWNS ON TOP OF THEIR NIGHT GOWNS. I DON'T GO DOWN NOW
TILL SEVEN I MAKE MY OWN BED. WE HAVE PRAYERS IN THE MORNING AND THE
EVENING AND PRAYERS AGAIN WHEN THE DAY SCHOLERS COME. I DO MY SUMS
BETTER NOW I THINK I SHALL SOON BE IN THE SECOND CLASS. PINS SPELLING
WAS DREADFULL AND SHE IS NEARLY NINE NOW AND IS SUCH A BABY THE GIRLS
WOULD LAUGH AT HER.

I REMAIN

YOUR AFECTIONATE DAUGHTER LAURA.

P.S. I PARSSED A LONG SENTENCE WITHOUT ANY MISTAKES.

VII.

The mornings were beginning to grow dark and chilly: fires were laid
overnight in the outer classrooms--and the junior governess who was on
early duty, having pealed the six-o'clock bell, flitted like a grey
wraith from room to room and from one gas-jet to another, among
stretched, sleeping forms. And the few minutes' grace at an end, it was
a cold, unwilling pack that threw off coverlets and jumped out of bed,
to tie on petticoats and snuggle into dressing-gowns and shawls; for
the first approach of cooler weather was keenly felt, after the summer
heat. The governess blew on speedily chilblained fingers, in making her
rounds of the verandahs to see that each of the twenty pianos was
rightly occupied; and, as winter crept on, its chief outward sign an
occasional thin white spread of frost which vanished before the mighty
sun of ten o'clock, she sometimes took the occupancy for granted, and
skipped an exposed room.

At eight, the boarders assembled in the dining-hall for prayers and
breakfast. After this meal it was Mrs. Gurley's custom to drink a glass
of hot water. While she sipped, she gave audience, meting out rebukes
and crushing complaints--were any bold enough to offer them--standing
erect behind her chair at the head of the table, supported by one or
more of the staff. To suit the season she was draped in a shawl of
crimson wool, which reached to the flounce of her skirt, and was borne
by her portly shoulders with the grace of a past day. Beneath the
shawl, her dresses were built, year in, year out, on the same plan: cut
in one piece, buttoning right down the front, they fitted her like an
eelskin, rigidly outlining her majestic proportions, and always short
enough to show a pair of surprisingly small, well-shod feet. Thus she
stood, sipping her water, and boring with her hard, unflagging eye
every girl that presented herself to it. Most shra