Page:Comin' Thro' the Rye (1898).djvu/119

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SEED TIME.
111

sporting celebrity, name unknown. We have even studied this man's face with impertinent interest, thanks to a remark mother made one day to the effect that papa and he had been "old friends," and we have speculated often enough as to whether they ever kicked each other, or never fell out from sheer lack of opportunity.

I am sorry when the last "Amen" is spoken, and we step out of the dim cool church into the gaudy brisk day. I am sorrier still, when, at ten o'clock, I am summoned to the committee-room, and undergo at Miss Tyburn's hands a searching examination into the extent of my very limited mental capabilities, and to whatsoever questions are asked me on this, that, and t'other, write the answers down in a large volume that is called the committee-book, but is in reality a Book of Doom, in which in her time many and many a girl has written herself down an ass. That I do the same you may be very sure, and I presently retire with the proud conviction that in ignorance I have beaten all my predecessors, every one.

In the afternoon I began my real school life with needlework, over which in very good sooth my trouble begins, for though well versed in the arts of climbing and jumping, I am utterly ignorant of such gentle accomplishments as "felling" and "stitching." And so the day wears away, and the morrow comes, and very so on I get into the ways of my new life, and in spite of sundry homesick qualms and heart-sinkings, grow to love it very heartily. It has its ups and downs, its jealousies and bickerings, its hard lessons to be learned, and hard knocks submitted to; but none the less I find my school existence a wholesome, pleasant, happy one. There is no tyranny here. It is in a girl's own hands whether she gets on well or badly. She will not be censured for faults she has not committed, nor praised without just reason. Her work is plain and clear before her, and she can pursue it without let or hindrance. Every hour is well filled, every pleasure well earned, and the sleep