United States or Uzbekistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And in addition to the extra work assigned the girl at the Red Mill by Miss Cramp, there was a special study which Ruth wished to excel in. Miss Cramp was old-fashioned enough to believe that spelling was the very best training for the mind and the memory and that it was a positive crime for any child to grow up to be a slovenly speller.
Father thought that while I was afflicted in this way, it would be hard on my mind for me to study, and it would be best to keep me at home. During my last term at school, I read in McGuffey's Fourth Reader, studied the second part of Arithmetic, had learned to spell fairly well in the old Elementary Speller, and had also begun geography a study which I liked very much.
Allan read aloud the Parable of the Sower, and they all said the Lord's Prayer; then he called the Blue Back Speller class. The spelling done, they read from the same book about the Martyr and his Family. Geography followed, with an account of the Yang-tse-Kiang and an illustration of a pagoda, after which the ten-year-olds took the front bench and read of little Hugh and old Mr. Toil.
Now, if Julien had been less of a novice, he would have understood that a girl who loves never addresses such a question; but the feminine heart was a book in which he was a very poor speller. He imagined that Reine was only asking him as a matter of form, and that it was from a feeling of maidenly reserve that she adopted this passive method of escaping from openly declaring her wishes.
But the night nurse recorded, "Pulse very thin and iregular," at four o'clock. She, too, was not a famous speller. During the next morning, while the ward rolled bandages, having carefully scrubbed its hands first, Jane Brown wrote records she did it rather well now and then arranged the pins in the ward pincushion.
William Pearce, who followed Whiting, came from the eastern shore of Maryland, where he owned an estate called "Hopewell." His salary was a hundred guineas a year. A poor speller and grammarian, he was nevertheless practical and one of the best of all the managers. He resigned in 1797 on account of rheumatism, which he thought would prevent him from giving business the attention it deserved.
She read aloud to her mother and said one column in a speller and definer, and Margaret taught her a little geography and arithmetic. She could hem very nicely now. She had learned to knit lace, and do some fancy work that was then called lap stitching.
Oh, yes, I know. P-l...." "P-l-o" prompted Polly, the speller coming to a full stop. "P-l-o-w!" shot out Jinny, in triumph. "Not QUITE right," said Polly. "It's g-h, Jinny: p-l-o-u-g-h." "Oh, that's what I meant. I knew it right enough." "Well, now, trough!" "Trough?" repeated Jinny, in the same slow, vacant way. "Trough? Wait, lemme think a minute. T-r-o...."
Second, the teachers themselves had such limited knowledge that two months were ample time in which to exhaust their store of knowledge, and, as examinations were so easy, it was not imperative that they do more than "keep school." I remember quite distinctly that when I did go to school we used the proverbial Webster's blue-back speller.
No, my dear friend, the world is not yet turned into a farm-yard; there are other things to tell of besides the mud pies of the Speller children and the marks of little Billy Saltmarsh's hob-nailed shoes in the grass where he set the snare. The Turks say that a fool has three points in common with an ass, he eats, he drinks, and he brays at other asses.
Word Of The Day