First Recess.

The time for the recess is a quarter of an hour, and, as you will see, it is marked R. on the schedule.  We have various modes of amusing ourselves, and finding exercise and recreation in recesses.  Sometimes the girls bring their battledores to school.  Sometimes they have a large number of soft balls with which they amuse themselves.  A more common amusement is marching to the music of the piano.  For this purpose a set of signals by the whistle has been devised, by which commands are communicated to the school.

In these and similar amusements the recesses pass away, and one minute before it expires the bell is rung to give notice of the approach of study hours.

At this signal the scholars begin to prepare for a return to the ordinary duties of school, and when, at the full expiration of the recess, the Study Card again goes up, silence, and attention, and order is immediately restored.

Third Hour.—­Mathematics.

There follows next, as you will see by reference to the schedule, an hour marked Mathematics.  It is time for studying and reciting Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and similar studies.  It is divided, as the previous hours were, into two equal parts, and the bell is rung, as has been described, five minutes before the close, and also precisely at the close of each half hour.

Second General Exercise.—­Business.

Then follow two quarter hours, appropriated like those heretofore described, the first to a General Exercise, the second to a recess.  At the first of these the general business of the school is transacted.  As this business will probably appear new to you, and will attract your attention, I will describe its nature and design.

At first you will observe a young lady rise at the secretary’s desk to read a journal of what was done the day before.  The notices which I gave, the arrangements I made, the subjects discussed and decided, and, in fact, every thing important and interesting in the business or occurrences of the preceding day, is recorded by the secretary of the school, and read at this time.  This journal ought not to be a mere dry record of votes and business, but, as far as possible, an interesting description, in a narrative style, of the occurrences of the day.  The secretary must keep a memorandum, and ascertain that every thing important really finds a place in the record, but she may employ any good writer in school to prepare, from her minutes, the full account.

After the record is read, you will observe me take from a little red morocco wrapper which has been brought to my desk a number of narrow slips of paper, which I am to read aloud.  In most assemblies, it is customary for any person wishing it to rise in his place and propose any plan, or, as it is called, “make any motion” that he pleases.  It would be unpleasant for a young lady to do this in presence of a hundred companions, and we have consequently resorted to another plan.  The red wrapper is placed in a part of the room accessible to all, and any one who pleases writes upon a narrow slip of paper any thing she wishes to lay before the school, and deposits it there, and at the appointed time the whole are brought to me.  These propositions are of various kinds.  I can, perhaps, best give you an idea of them by such specimens as occur to me.