Next day we were all in our places and ready for the lesson and also anxiously waiting for the opening of the black bag. When it was opened she gave us a small bag of chestnuts and a picture-card. I have never forgotten the black bag, as you see I am recalling now its history in detail half a century after it opened to us its first simple lesson. That dear teacher long ago put on her white garments and went to heaven. Her boys, six in number, never forgot their teacher and the black bag. I recall now that two of those boys became ministers of the gospel. Two of them went into the practise of law. One went West, and the other passed on. I am all that is left of the old class. The other boys are with her in heaven, and I often think that perhaps they talk over yet the story of the black bag. I have such a black bag now, and whenever I use it in teaching I tell them the story of my dear teacher and her black bag. I use it now as a covering for my objects. If the children see the objects before you use them the surprise element is lacking. If they are brought out of a bag as you use them, the children will be curious about what comes next, and will wait and watch as you speak. The black bag can be easily made as it is a regular bag. Make it about the size of a child's school-bag, and as books of learning come forth from such a bag tell them that they can learn something from your black bag. You may load it with a variety of objects, if you so desire, and let each object teach a lesson. Some of the objects used in the chapters of this book can be made first to appear from the black bag. =56 HOW FIVE SPADES DUG THROUGH A CHAPTER TO BE READ FOR THE TRAINING OF THE OBJECT WORKER= This is an uncommon object-lesson. It is a curio in visual instruction. One summer while traveling in the great Northwest, I dropped into a Salvation Army meeting, and in their _War Cry,_ which I then purchased, I read the following story. It is a record of the conquest of an uncommon object-lesson upon which God had put his great O.K. by the salvation of a soul. Read it through as another helpful illustration of the ministry of visual instruction in thorny ground. This was the story. "A friend of mine was once coming on a train when five of the nine in the coach began to play cards; they were evidently sharpers, and before long challenged others to play with them, but all declined, At last they turned to my friend and said: "We can see by your face that you fully understand the game; come, take a turn." "I did know the cards once; but it is so long since I played that I forget how to play." "Nonsense!" they said, "you could win all our money, if you only tried." "Perhaps that would not be very much," he replied; "anyway, I will not attempt. Five of you are enough for your game; we will look on." As they still pegged away at him, he said at last: