as
needed. A short specimen of the exercise will probably make it clearer
than mere description.

_Mary_. Eight ounces of candy at seven cents.

_Susan_. Fifty-six cents.

_Mary_. One dollar.

_Susan_. Forty-four cents.

* * * * *

_Susan_. Nine yards of lace at eight cents.

_Anna_. Seventy-two cents.

_Susan_. Two dollars.

_Anna_. One dollar and twenty-eight cents.

* * * * *

_Anna_. Three pieces of tape at five cents.

_Jane_. Fifteen cents.

_Anna_. Three dollars.

_Jane_. Eighty-five cents.

_Several voices_. Wrong.

_Jane_. Two dollars and eighty-five cents.

* * * * *

_Jane_. Six pictures at eight cents.

_Sarah_. Forty-two cents.

_Several voices_. Wrong.

_Sarah_. Forty-eight cents.

_Jane_. One dollar.

_Sarah_. Sixty-two cents.

_Several voices_. Wrong.

_Sarah_. Fifty-two cents.

* * * * *

It will be perceived that the same individual who names the article and
the price names also the bill which she would give in payment; and the
one who sits next her, who calculated the amount, calculated also the
change to be returned. She then proposed _her_ example to the one next
in the line, with whom the same course was pursued, and thus it passed
down the class.

The exercise went on for some time in this way, till the pupils had
become so familiar with it that I thought it best to allow them to take
higher numbers. They were always interested in it, and made great
improvement in a short time, and I myself derived great advantage from
listening to them.

There is one more circumstance I will add which may contribute to the
interest of this account. While the class were confined, in what they
purchased, to the number ten, they were sometimes inclined to turn the
exercise into a frolic. The variety of articles which they could find
costing less than ten cents was so small, that, for the sake of getting
something new, they would propose examples really ludicrous, such as
these: three meeting-houses at two cents; four pianos at nine cents. But
I soon found that if I allowed this at all, their attention was diverted
from the main object, and occupied in seeking the most diverting and
curious examples.

15. ARTIFICES IN RECITATIONS.--The teacher of a small newly-established
school had all of his scholars classed together in some of their
studies. At rec