Ruth's cheeks grew hot, as their scrutinizing and unfriendly glances were bent on her, and that feeling of utter desolation came over her, which was always so overwhelming whenever she presented herself as a suppliant for public favor. In truth, it was but a poor preparation for the inquisitorial torture before her. The applicants were called out, one by one, in alphabetical order; Ruth inwardly blessing the early nativity of the letter H, for these anticipatory-shower-bath meditations were worse to her than the shock of a volley of chilling interrogations. "Letter H." Ruth rose with a flutter at her heart, and entered a huge, barren-looking room, at the further end of which sat, in august state, the dread committee. _Very_ respectable were the gentlemen of whom that committee was composed; _respectable_ was written all over them, from the crowns of their scholastic heads to the very tips of their polished boots; and correct and methodical as a revised dictionary they sat, with folded hands and spectacle-bestridden noses. Ruth seated herself in the victim's chair, before this august body, facing a flood of light from a large bay-window, that nearly extinguished her eyes. "What is your age?" asked the elder of the inquisitors. Scratch went the extorted secret on the nib of the reporter's pen! "Where was you educated?" "Was Colburn, or Emerson, your teacher's standard for Arithmetic?" "Did you cipher on a slate, or black-board?" "Did you learn the multiplication table, skipping, or in order?" "Was you taught Astronomy, or Philosophy, first?" "Are you accustomed to a quill, or a steel-pen? lines, or blank-paper, in writing?" "Did you use Smith's, or Jones' Writing-Book?" "Did you learn Geography by Maps, or Globes?" "Globes?" asked Mr. Squizzle, repeating Ruth's answer; "possible?" "They use Globes at the celebrated Jerrold Institute," remarked Mr. Fizzle. "Impossible!" retorted Mr. Squizzle, growing plethoric in the face; "Globes, sir, are exploded; no institution of any note uses Globes, sir. I know it." "And I know you labor under a mistake," said Fizzle, elevating his chin, and folding his arms pugnaciously over his striped vest. "I am acquainted with one of the teachers in that highly-respectable school." "And I, sir," said Squizzle, "am well acquainted with the Principal, who is a man of too much science, sir, to use globes, sir, to teach geography, sir."