Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary

There is a new principal in Eugene's school named Leonard, who requires all the children to write a composition. It is to be a competition with a prize of $5. The paper is to be about the meaning of a French picture called The Song of the Lark, which depicts a barefoot peasant girl with a sickle in her hand with her face turned upward into the morning light as she listens to the song of a bird. Eugene wins the prize of $5 for his composition.

The Leonards are starting a private school for boys, and on the basis of the composition, they are choosing students. They must now persuade the Gants to send him to their school. Eliza agrees after a long recitation about her own history and how she became a teacher. The school is named Altamont Fitting School, it...