u wish to have the building preserved
in its present state, and will, as a body, take the necessary
precautions, we will do our part."

[Illustration]

The students responded to this appeal most heartily. They passed a vote
expressing a desire to preserve the premises in order, and for many
years, and, for aught I know, to the present hour, the whole is kept as
a room occupied by gentlemen should be kept. At some other colleges, and
those, too, sustaining the very highest rank among the institutions of
the country, the doors of the public buildings are sometimes _studded
with nails as thick as they can possibly be driven, and then covered
with a thick coat of sand dried into the paint, as a protection from the
knives of the students!!_

The particular methods by which the teacher is to interest his pupils in
his various plans for their improvement can not be fully described here.
In fact, it does not depend so much on the methods he adopts as upon the
view which he himself takes of these plans, and the _tone and manner in
which he speaks of them to his pupils_.

A teacher, for example, perhaps on the first day of his labors in a new
school, calls a class to read. They pretend to form a line, but it
crooks in every direction. One boy is leaning back against a desk;
another comes forward as far as possible, to get near the fire; the rest
lounge in every position and in every attitude. John is holding up his
book high before his face to conceal an apple from which he is
endeavoring to secure an enormous bite. James is, by the same sagacious
device, concealing a whisper which he is addressing to his next
neighbor, and Moses is seeking amusement by crowding and elbowing the
little boy who is unluckily standing next him.

"What a spectacle!" says the master to himself, as he looks at this sad
display. "What shall I do?" The first impulse is to break forth upon
them at once with all the artillery of reproof, and threatening, and
punishment. I have seen, in such a case, a scolding and frowning master
walk up and down before such a class with a stern and angry air,
commanding this one to stand back, and that one to come forward,
ordering one boy to put down his book, and scolding at a second for
having lost his place, and knocking the knees of another with his ruler
because he was out of the line. The boys scowl at their teacher, and,
with ill-natured reluctance, they obey just enough to escape punishment.

Another teache