Part 2
When morning school was done, Mary had all the books and the slates neatly put into their places. Carry Deacon came running up to Mary to tell her that she had put every thing into her desk that belonged there, and that the lid would shut down closely. Mary went to Carry’s desk to look into it, and she found that the things were not all tumbled in, helter-skelter, but that each book was in its right place; and she said Carry was a good little girl, because she was trying to improve.
Carry looked very much pleased, when Mary praised her. And she said, “I do love you, Mary, you are so kind to me. You never call me careless Carry.”
The boys and girls amused themselves as they liked until dinner-time.
My little readers will remember, that they had all brought their dinner to school, because it was a rainy day. They will remember too, that Mary lived with Harry Linn’s father and mother. Her basket was quite a large one, with dinner enough in it for four: Charles and Lucy and Harry Linn and Mary.
When it was dinner-time, Mary had the napkins taken out of each basket, and she spread them all upon a little table which stood in the corner of the school-room, and these served for a table-cloth. Then she took out of every basket all that was in it. There was bread and butter and cold meat and biscuit and apple pies. Mary had brought a large pie, and some of the scholars had brought small pies. Mary placed the large pie in the centre of the table, and the little pies around it. Lily Forester’s patty-pan pie, with her name on it, was the least of all. Lily capered around the table, and was wild with delight. Ellen Raby said the large pie was the mother-pie and the little pies were the children.
Charles Linn took the pitcher and brought some fresh water from the spring, and Mary put the little mug which was in the wash-room, on the table, for a drinking cup. When the table was arranged, Mary allowed Ellen Raby to ring the bell. She rang the bell very loud, and she ran about, saying to every one, “Please to come to dinner.”
Before they began to eat, they sat in silence[A] for a little while; and then Mary asked her scholars, if they knew why we sit in silence before we partake of our meals? Charles Linn said, “We do it that we may think of our Heavenly Father, before we eat our food, because He gives it to us.” “Yes,” said Mary, “He gives us every good thing that we have, and we should try, when we receive his gifts, to ask Him to give us grateful hearts for them. We cannot give ourselves kind parents and pleasant homes and health, nor abilities to provide food and raiment. God must give them to us or we must go without them.
“Shall I repeat to my little scholars some verses which my mother taught me to say when I was about as old as Lily Forester?”
They all said, “Yes, oh do, before we eat our dinner.” And Mary repeated:
When my little daughter comes To the board with plenty spread, She should try to think of Him, By whose bounty she is fed.
From our Heavenly Father’s hand Come our blessings, health and food, Parents, homes, and all we have, All we know and think of good.
Then, my darling, try to say To thyself a little prayer; Ask God for a grateful heart At thy meals, and everywhere.
Mary talked with her scholars while they ate their dinner; and after dinner was over, each scholar put the plates and other things that belonged to her into her own basket. There was not much left, for they were all very hungry. Then they went into the wash-room, one at a time, and washed their hands and faces. Mary required her scholars to eat slowly and chew their food well; and eating their dinner and washing and putting their baskets away, had occupied so much time, that now it was almost two o’clock, and school in the afternoon commenced at two o’clock. Mary had no recess during the afternoon on rainy days, and she closed her school at four o’clock. She said it was not healthful to remain longer than that time in a close room. It had rained so fast all day that the scholars could not go out to take the air.
* * * * *
When Mary said it was school-time, Charles Linn called out, “Now for school.” “Now for school.” “May I ring the bell?” Mary told him he might. And he rang the bell.
Carry Deacon did not come when the bell was rung, nor Ellen Raby, nor Harry Linn, nor Lily Forester. Mary asked Charles to go and look for them, and he found them in the wash-room. They had taken all the dinner-baskets out of the closet, and they were playing “Go to market and sell apples.” Carry Deacon had a basket on her head, and Ellen Raby had one on her arm, and Harry Linn had tied a string to their large basket, and he and Lily Forester were pulling it along. They pretended the basket was a cart, and that it had apples in it, and that Harry was Sam the driver, and Lily was Sam’s wife, and she was going to market with him to measure out the apples in a half-peck measure.
They were all in high glee, and Carry Deacon said, “Isn’t it nice on rainy days?”
Charles Linn told them it was school-time. They asked Charles to help them put the baskets away. Charles was a kind little boy, and he helped them, and he untied the string which Harry had put to the large basket, and then they all came into school.
When the scholars were in their seats, Mary said, “Which of my little boys and girls have their Definitions ready?”
The little ones did not learn definitions, but the larger ones did, and they had been studying their lessons between schools. After Mary had heard the definition-class, she called the little ones, and asked them if they remembered what lesson they said on the second day of the week. Carry Deacon said, “Oh, yes, this is question-afternoon.” Mary said, “That is true, Carry, and I am glad to find you remember it.”
These are some of the questions which Mary asked her little scholars.
How many hands have you? How many feet have you? How many fingers? How many thumbs? How many toes on each foot? How many on both feet? Which is your right hand? Which is your left hand? How many senses have you? What are your senses called? What do you taste with? What do you smell with? What do you hear with? What do you handle with? What do you see with?
Now, my little readers, suppose you try to answer these questions. Your kind mothers, or your older brother or sister, will tell you if you answer them correctly. Mary’s little scholars missed some, but they answered most of them correctly.
When they had done answering questions, Mary told them they might go to their seats and write on their slates. Their copies were already set.
Instead of having a recess, Mary read to her scholars a pretty story. It was a true story about a good muffin-man.
[Illustration:
~Second Day.~ The good muffin-man. p. 49. ]
STORY OF THE GOOD MUFFIN-MAN.
There was once a muffin-man who carried muffins about the streets of a large city to sell. He carried them in two square baskets, on his shoulders. In the street where he served the people with muffins, a poor sailor’s wife lived. She was sick, and she could not work, and she had not any body to give her money, for her husband was a sailor, and he was out at sea in a great ship. She had a young child, and she was so poor that she had not even enough money to buy bread. The good muffin-man stopped every day and gave her some muffins out of one of his baskets to eat. Whenever the muffin-man stopped, the little child would run away from her mother to come to him, because she was so glad to see him.
Mary’s scholars thought the muffin-man was very good and kind. There was a picture over the story, and Mary showed them the picture. After they had talked about the poor sailor’s wife, and the little child, and the muffin-man, Carry Deacon asked, “Why the people did not make muffins at home?” Mary told her, “That in large cities, such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia, the people who lived there bought many things, which the country people made at home. They bought their milk and their butter and their meat and their eggs, because the houses were built up closely together, and there was not room enough, in towns, to keep cows and pigs and chickens. Mary asked Carry if she had never seen people carrying milk and bread and fruit about, when she was in Philadelphia.” Carry said, “Yes, she had seen a man carrying a bucket with bright hoops around it; and her aunt, at whose house she stayed, told her the bucket had milk in it.” And Carry said, “She saw a woman carrying oranges in a basket, and the woman knocked at people’s doors, and asked them to buy her oranges.”
[Illustration:
~Second Day.~ The fruit woman on her way to town p. 51. ]
Mary went around among her scholars, while they were writing, to see that they held their pens and pencils properly. She rubbed out some of Lily Forester’s straight marks and round o’s, because her strokes were crooked and her o’s were not well formed, and Lily said she would try again.
While the scholars were writing, Mary looked over the Bible to select a chapter to read at the close of the school.
Carry Deacon came up to Mary and whispered to her, to please to read about the beautiful garden where Adam and Eve lived a great while ago and talked with our Heavenly Father.
When school was done, Mary called her little boys and girls to come and sit around her while she read to them the Bible. She read to them about God creating the world; and how he made the heavens, and the bright stars, and the earth and all the people that live on it, and the flowers, and the birds and beasts, and every thing that has life. And then she read to them about Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman, and about the beautiful garden, called the garden of Eden, where they lived, and where they were very happy, until they were disobedient; and because they were disobedient they had to go out of the beautiful garden of Eden.
“Is God, who made every thing, our Heavenly Father, Mary?” said Harry Linn.
“Yes, Harry.”
“Did God send Adam and Eve out of the beautiful garden because they were disobedient?” asked Carry Deacon.
“Yes,” said Mary.
“But, Mary, I thought you said our Heavenly Father loved us, and was kind to us. I do not think it was kind to send poor Adam and Eve away. Why did not God forgive them for being disobedient, as you did me this morning?”
“They did not ask God to forgive them,” Mary said; “And you know, Carry, that when we have done wrong, we cannot be forgiven, until we are sorry that we have done wrong, and sincerely ask our Heavenly Father to forgive us.”
“Did Adam and Eve _know_ they were to be sent away, if they were naughty?” asked Carry.
Eddy Forester said, “Do you not remember, Carry, Mary read to us, that God showed Adam and Eve one tree in the garden, and told them not to touch it? and he told them if they ate the fruit on that tree, they should surely die.”
“Oh, yes,” Carry said, “I remember now,” and the scholars all said they remembered that.
“Well,” Mary said, “you know GOD IS TRUE. He always keeps his word. We must believe every word of God; but if God should not do what he said He would do, we could not believe Him. He said he would punish Adam and Eve, if they ate the fruit which he told them not to touch, and if he had not punished them, how could we believe every word God had spoken?”
Carry said, “Does God love us any more, when He punishes us, Mary?”
“Yes,” Mary said, “He punishes us sometimes when we do wrong, because He loves us and wants to make us love and obey Him. You know, Carry, your mother sends you away from her, when you are naughty, to punish you; and she does it because she wants to make you a good, obedient little girl; and do you not think your mother loves you?”
“Oh, yes,” Carry said; “my mother says she loves me, and I know she does.”
Little Ellen Raby was leaning against Mary; she was very tired. Harry and Lily had slipped off from the bench where they were sitting, and they were lying on the floor, looking up into Mary’s face while she was talking.
Then Mary said, “My little scholars are weary, they have been at school long enough.”
The bigger boys and girls begged Mary to talk to them some more about Adam and Eve. They said they were not weary. Charles Linn said he would hold Ellen Raby on his lap, while Harry and Lily rested on the floor. But Mary looked at her watch, and she said, “We will not talk any more now. It is after four o’clock. It is time for us all to go home. It does not rain much now, and we can go home without getting very wet.”
Then Mary put away the Bible, and she went and brought Carry Deacon’s shoes and stockings to her.
“Now Carry, dear,” Mary said, “go and take off the borrowed shoes and stockings, and put on your own. Yours are quite dry.”
Carry did as she was bidden, and then Mary took the shoes and stockings which Carry left off, and put them into her basket; for my little readers will remember they belonged to Lucy Linn, and we must never forget to return carefully and in good season any thing that we borrow. Mary took care that each scholar had the right umbrella and the right dinner-basket, and then she kissed them all, and they went home.
Charles Linn said he did not care for a little rain, and he took the large basket and ran home. He left the umbrella for Mary and his little brother Harry, and his sister Lucy, and Mary and Lucy and Harry walked home together.
[Illustration: THE END]
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Footnote A:
This incident contains a historical fact. In many parts of Pennsylvania, which were originally settled by members of the Society of Friends, some of their social customs are still adhered to, even by families not of their sect, and one of these customs is to observe a short season of silent supplication before meals.
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=TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:=
Italics, bold letters, blackletter font and small capitals have been converted to _ = ~ and ALL CAPS respectively.
Perceived typos have been silently corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.