look over her collection with the view of
selecting such as were suitable. Of course
she did not design to give them the whole
picture to be drawn, for some of the pic-
tures were quite large ; but to select from
each some one thing, as a house, a ship, a
ARRANGEMENTS. 129
cannon, a man on horseback, or something
of the kind.
After she had made the selections she
took the pictures up to the play-room and
put them around the table, at the places
where the several scholars were to sit. She
also wrote the name of each scholar upon
a slip of paper, and distributed the slips
around the table, at the places which she
meant to assign to them, taking care to
put the two youngest nearest to her seat,
where she could see better what they were
doing, and the older ones, who did not
need such close supervision, farther away.
These arrangements were all completed
on the morning of the day when the school
was to assemble for the first time. The
day for the first meeting was Wednesday,
and the time two o'clock in the afternoon.
130 MARY GAY'S WORK IN SUMMER.
CHAPTER XII.
FLAG UP! FLAG DOWN!
MARY had a very pretty silk flag, a little
more than a foot long, which she deter-
mined to use in her school as a signal for
silence and attention.
" I will have a place," she said to Luly,
" where I can put the flag up and take it
down ; and when it is up they must all be
still and attend to their drawing, and not
speak a word."
There was a slender staff attached to
the flag. This staff was between two and
three feet long. While Mary was speak-
ing of her plan, Luly took the flag in her
hand, by means of the staff, and waved
it in the air.
" Only," said Mary, " I don't see how I
can put it up."
" Neither do I," said Luly.
" If John was here, and would only bore
a hole in the end of our table," said Mary,
FLAG UP ! FLAG DOWN ! 131
" then I could set the end of the flag-staff
in the hole when I wished to put the flag
up, and take it out and lay it upon the
table when I wished to put it down."
" Yes," said Luly, still waving the flag
to and fro.
" But he is not here to do that for me,"
continued Mary, " and so I must try to
think of something with a hole in it to set
on the table."
The best thing that Mary could think
of was a bottle. She thought that a bot-
tle would do very well. So she went to
the china-closet and procured one, a good
heavy one, that would stand steady, and
that had a mouth large enough to receive
the end of the flag-staff.
She carried this bottle up into the play-
room, and set it upon the end of the bench
opposite to the one where she was going
to sit herself, and near the corner.
She did not however set the flag up in
the bottle, but laid it down upon the table
by the side .of it.
She also put a little table-bell near the
place, to be rung whenever the flag was
put up or taken down.
132 MARY GAY'S WORK IN SUMMEU.
When the time arrived, and the children
began to come, she told those that came
first that Luly would show them their
places at the table, and they might put their
pencils down, each in her own place, and
then that they might walk round the table
if they pleased, and see what there was
on it ; but that they must not touch any-
thing, nor ask any questions ; and that after
they had seen what was on the table as
much as they wished, they might go and
play with the swing, or with the rocking-
boat, until the rest of the scholars carne and
she rang the bell for the school to begin.
The children liked the idea very much
of having a little play before the school
should begin ; and after putting down their
pencils, and looking very curiously at the
flag and the bottle, and also walking round
the table and taking a hurried glance at the
pictures laid upon it for models, they ran
off to the rocking-boat and the swing.
At length, after all the children had come
and had all had a little time to play, Mary
rang the bell for the school to begin, and
they immediately all ran to their places and
climbed up into their seats.
FLAG UP! FLAG DOWN! 133
" What a good thing it was," said Mary
to herself, " that I chose their places for
them and marked them all myself. If I
had left it to them, they would have all
wanted the same seats, and there would
have been nothing but scrambling and con-
fusion.
" Now, children," said Mary, " I am
going to make a speech, and you must all
be still, and listen and hear my speech."
" What is the bottle for ? " asked one of
the children.
" There ! " said Mary, " somebody has
asked a question. Whoever interrupts me
to ask a question when I am going to
make a speech breaks the rules.
" I have given you all a picture with
something in it for you to copy. I shall
corne round and show you all in turn what
part it is that you are going to copy. You
are not going to copy the whole of the pic-
ture, but only one thing in it."
Here the children all began to take up
their pictures and examine them, and
Dickey called out in a very loud voice that
he was going to copy a cannon out of his
picture.