* * * * * Read in the Bible,--tell the place,-- _Job twentieth and the seventeenth varse_-- Caleb, begin. _And--he--shall--suck_-- _Sir,--Moses got a pin and stuck_-- Silence,--stop Caleb--Moses! here! What's this complaint? _I didn't, Sir_,-- Hold up your hand,--What, is't a pin? _O dear, I won't do so again._ Read on. _The increase of his h-h-horse_-- Hold: H,O,U,S,E, spells house. _Sir, what's this word? for I can't tell it._ Can't you indeed! Why, spell it. _Spell it._ Begin yourself, I say. _Who, I?_ Yes, try. Sure you can spell it. _Try._ Go, take your seats and primers, go, You sha'n't abuse the Bible so. _Will pray Sir Master mend my pen?_ Say, Master, that's enough.--Here Ben, Is this your copy? Can't you tell? Set all your letters parallel. _I've done my sum--'tis just a groat_-- Let's see it.--_Master, m' I g' out?_ Yes, bring some wood in--What's that noise? _It isn't I, Sir, it's them boys._-- Come, Billy, read--What's that? _That's A_-- _Sir, Jim has snatch'd my rule away_-- Return it, James.--Here rule with this-- Billy, read on,--_That's crooked S._ Read in the spelling-book--Begin-- _The boys are out_--Then call them in-- _My nose bleeds, mayn't I get some ice,_ _And hold it in my breeches?_--Yes. John, keep your seat. _My sum is more_-- Then do't again--Divide by four, By twelve, and twenty--Mind the rule. Now speak, Manasseh, and spell tool. _I can't--Well try--T,W,L._ Not wash'd your hands yet, booby, ha? You had your orders yesterday. Give me the ferule, hold your hand. _Oh! Oh!_ There,--mind my next command. The grammar read. Tell where the place is. _C sounds like K in cat and cases._ _My book is torn._ The next--_Here not_-- E final makes it long--say note. What are the stops and marks, Susannah? _Small points, Sir._--And how many, Hannah? _Four, Sir._ How many, George? _You look:_ _Here's more than fifty in my book._ How's this? Just come, Sam? _Why, I've been_-- Who knocks? _I don't know, Sir._ Come in. "Your most obedient, Sir?" and yours. Sit down, Sir. Sam, put to the doors. What do you bring to tell that's new! "Nothing that's either strange or true. What a prodigious school! I'm sure You've got a hundred here, or more. A word, Sir, if you please." I will-- You girls, till I come in be still. "Come, we can dance to-night--so you Dismiss your brain-distracting crew, And come--for all the girls are there, We'll have a fiddle and a player." Well, mind and have the sleigh-bells sent, I'll soon dismiss my regiment.