If such a measure as this is adopted, it should not be continued uninterrupted for a very long time.  Every thing of this sort should be occasionally changed, or it sooner or later becomes only a form.

14.  THE SHOPPING EXERCISE.—­I have often, when going a shopping, found difficulty and trouble in making change.  I could never calculate very readily, and in the hurry and perplexity of the moment I was always making mistakes.  I have heard others often make the same complaint, and I resolved to try the experiment of regularly teaching children to make change.  I had a bright little class in Arithmetic, the members of which were always ready to engage with interest in any thing new, and to them I proposed my plan.  It was to be called the Shopping Exercise.  I first requested each individual to write something upon her slate which she would like to buy, if she was going a shopping, stating the quantity she wished and the price of it.  To make the first lesson as simple as possible, I requested no one to go above ten, either in the quantity or price.  When all were ready, I called upon some to read what she had written.  Her next neighbor was then requested to tell us how much the purchase would amount to.  Then the first one named a bill, which she supposed to be offered in payment, and the second showed what change was needed.  A short specimen of the exercise will probably make it clearer than mere description.

Mary.  Eight ounces of candy at seven cents.

Susan.  Fifty-six cents.

Mary.  One dollar.

Susan.  Forty-four cents.

* * * * *

Susan.  Nine yards of lace at eight cents.

Anna.  Seventy-two cents.

Susan.  Two dollars.

Anna.  One dollar and twenty-eight cents.

* * * * *

Anna.  Three pieces of tape at five cents.

Jane.  Fifteen cents.

Anna.  Three dollars.

Jane.  Eighty-five cents.

Several voices.  Wrong.

Jane.  Two dollars and eighty-five cents.

* * * * *

Jane.  Six pictures at eight cents.

Sarah.  Forty-two cents.

Several voices.  Wrong.

Sarah.  Forty-eight cents.

Jane.  One dollar.

Sarah.  Sixty-two cents.

Several voices.  Wrong.

Sarah.  Fifty-two cents.

* * * * *

It will be perceived that the same individual who names the article and the price names also the bill which she would give in payment; and the one who sits next her, who calculated the amount, calculated also the change to be returned.  She then proposed her example to the one next in the line, with whom the same course was pursued, and thus it passed down the class.