"''Tain't a hymn, sir. It's the "Recessional"!' This, proudly, from the youngest. "But they had learned it at school, and when I had given them a leg-up and stood watching them urge the ancient down the hillside, I made up my mind that I would visit the school where the teacher told the scholars all about case-moths and taught them to sing the 'Recessional'; and a morning or two later I did. [Illustration: AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL. PAGE 75.] "The school stands on the skirt of a thinly-clad Gippsland township, and is attended by from forty to fifty children. Fronting it is a garden--a sloping half-acre set out into beds, many of which are reserved for native flowering plants and trees. School is not 'in' yet, and a few early comers are at work on the beds, which are dry and dusty from a long, hot spell. Little tots of six and seven years stroll up and watch the workers, or romp about on grass plots in close proximity. Presently the master's voice is heard. 'Fall in!' There is a gathering up of bags, a hasty shuffling of feet, the usual hurry-scurry of laggards, and in a few moments two motionless lines stand at attention. 'Good-morning, girls! Good-morning, boys!' says the master. A chorused 'Good-morning, Mr. Morgan!' returns his salutation, and then the work of the day begins. "But do the scholars look upon it as work? Something over thirty years ago Herbert Spencer wrote: 'She was at school, where her memory was crammed with words and names and dates, and her reflective faculties scarcely in the slightest degree exercised.' In those days, as many old State-school boys well remember, to learn was, indeed, to work, and when fitting occasion offered, we 'wagged it' conscientiously, even though we did have to 'touch our toes' for it when we returned. But under our modern educational system the teacher can make the school work practically a labour of love. "The morning being bright, the children are put through some simple exercises and encouraged to take a few 'deep breathings.' Then the lines are formed again. 'Left turn! Quick march!' and the scholars file into the schoolhouse." But we need not follow the school in its day's work, except to say that the ideal always is to make the work alive and interesting. Naturally, Australian children get to like school.