_Mary._ “Yes. All the scholars, except you, put away their books and slates, before they went out to play, and yours are all out of place. Go, now, and put them neatly into your desk.” Carry ran away to do as Mary told her. And then Mary rang the bell for school. Now it was reading time. Harry Linn, and Lily Forester, and Ellen Raby, were in a class by themselves. They were just learning to read. Ellen Raby was older than Harry and Lily, but she did not know enough to be in the first class. After all the scholars had done reading, they took their slates to do sums, and make figures. Mary showed those who could cipher, how to do their sums, and she set lines of figures for the little ones. Mary made pens, and set copies in the copy books for afternoon. One of the copies was, [Illustration: Handwritten: Mary loves her scholars.] Another copy was, [Illustration: Handwritten: They are good children.] Another copy was, [Illustration: Handwritten: They are sorry when they do wrong.] 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.